A majority of Israelis would support unilateral military action against Iran, according to a poll published Friday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government was ready to act alone.

Some 65.6 percent of 500 Jewish Israelis surveyed by the pro-government Israel HaYom newspaper said they would support military strikes to halt Iran's nuclear program, and 84 percent believed the Islamic republic had no intention of reining in its alleged drive to build a bomb.

Saudi authorities have freed prominent activist Waleed Abulkhair on bail after arresting him for holding "unauthorized" gatherings with reformists in the absolute monarchy, he said.

"The authorities have released me on bail," Abulkhair, a lawyer, told AFP late on Thursday.

Attacks in Iraq, including two suicide bombings, killed three soldiers and four civilians on Friday, security and medical officials said.

In Anbar province, west of Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle near an army checkpoint at an entrance to the town of Heet at about 7:30 am (04:30 GMT), killing three soldiers and wounding five.

Syrian President Bashar Assad warned Turkey it will "pay dearly" for supporting rebels fighting to overthrow his regime, in an interview broadcast Friday on Turkish television.

"In the near future these terrorists will have an impact on Turkey. And Turkey will pay very dearly for its contribution," Assad told the opposition station Halk TV.

A bomb exploded near a football field in Iraq on Thursday, killing five people and wounding at least 11, officials said.

The bombing in Madain, south of Baghdad, was just the latest in a string of attacks this year targeting young men playing Iraq's favorite sport.

Direct negotiations between Tunisia's ruling Islamist party Ennahda and the opposition to resolve a months-old political crisis sparked by the assassination of an opposition MP will begin on Saturday, mediators announced Thursday.

"The national dialogue meeting will take place next Saturday at the Palais des Congres" in Tunis, the country's main UGTT trade union said on its Facebook page.

About 60 Syrian refugees, of whom 40 are on a hunger strike, have occupied a key point in the northern French port of Calais and vowed to stay put until they are sent to Britain.

On the second day of the protest and hunger strike on Thursday, the asylum seekers put up slogans scribbled on cardboard proclaiming: "Take us to the UK", and "We want to talk to David Cameron".

Two Canadians held in Egypt since mid-August have ended their hunger strike after winning small concessions from their jailers, a relative of one of the men said Thursday.

John Greyson is a Toronto filmmaker and university professor, while Tarek Loubani is an emergency room doctor from London, Ontario.

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton on Thursday called for an "inclusive" approach to solve political turmoil in Egypt triggered by the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

Ashton, who wrapped up a two-day visit to Cairo, held meetings with top officials including army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi that focused on Egypt's political situation.

Two assailants were killed when protesters attacked Russia's embassy in Tripoli, a Libyan minister said Thursday, while denying Moscow's claims that it had evacuated the embassy on his request.

"Two Libyans were killed in the attack" late Wednesday, said Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdelaziz, adding that he had urged embassy staff not to spend the night in the compound for fear of a second attack.