Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday reiterated his support for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts to revive peace talks with Israel.

During a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Ramallah, Abbas talked of the Palestinians' "commitment to the success of Kerry's efforts to save the peace process in order to restart serious talks leading to the end of the occupation and the establishment of a an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

U.S. and Jordanian F-16 fighter jets hit dummy targets in the kingdom's southern desert on Wednesday, while Navy SEALs and other special forces rescued "hostages" and nabbed "terrorists" in mock exercises under major multinational maneuvers.

Using live ammunition, six F-16s, two AV-8B Harrier jets, 28 tanks, 20 armored personnel carriers, 800 U.S. and Jordanian troops took part in a 45-minute drill in Quweira close to the Red Sea port of Aqaba as part of "Eager Lion 2013," which wraps up on Thursday.

Yemeni tribesmen have kidnapped 11 soldiers, including two officers, and are demanding the release of a relative convicted of murder, tribal sources said on Wednesday.

Members of the Al-Marakisha tribe, in the southern province of Abyan, kidnapped two colonels and nine soldiers, to pressure authorities to release Ahmed al-Marakisha, the sources said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry leaves Friday on a 12-day trip during which he will return to the Middle East, hold high-level talks in Southeast Asia and make his first visit to India.

At the start of his seven-nation tour, Kerry will head first for Doha to meet with top Qatari leaders and take part in a meeting of the core ministers from the Friends of Syria group, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement Wednesday.

Jordanian border guards killed on Wednesday a Syrian and wounded two others after they attacked Jordanian soldiers at the border while trying to enter the country, the army said.

While border guards have stopped Jordanians trying to slip into Syria to fight on several occasions, it is rare for Syrians to attack Jordanian troops.

Foreign ministers of the "Friends of Syria" group will meet in Doha on Saturday to discuss aid for the rebels, including military help, a French diplomat said.

Ministers of Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Egypt will attend the meeting, the source said Wednesday.

Relatives of British soldiers killed while fighting in Iraq can sue the government for negligence and claim damages under human rights law, the Supreme Court in London ruled on Wednesday.

Lawyers for the family members, who can now proceed to trial, said the ruling means the Ministry of Defense owes a duty of care to properly equip service personnel who go to war.

The new U.S. ambassador to Libya arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday, an embassy source said, nine months after her predecessor and three other Americans were killed in an Islamist attack in Benghazi.

Career diplomat Deborah Jones will present her credentials on Thursday to the General National Congress, Libya's highest political and legislative authority, state news agency LANA said.

A Bahraini court sentenced six people to 10 years in prison on Wednesday after they were convicted of carrying out a bombing that wounded two people, the official BNA news agency reported.

The group were accused of "setting tires ablaze using a gas cylinder to create as much damage as possible to public and private property," public prosecution chief Muhanna al-Shayji was quoted as saying.

The Philippines Wednesday said it would keep its peacekeepers in the Golan Heights until at least August, and may stay longer if the United Nations increased security there.

The announcement by Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario followed repeated government warnings in recent weeks that it was considering swiftly pulling out its 341 soldiers from the volatile area between Syria and Israel.