The authorities in Yemen boosted security in the capital on Saturday a day before a visit by a U.N. Security Council delegation that is expected to focus on the impoverished country's political transition.

An AFP journalist said the army and security forces put up new checkpoints around and inside Sanaa, where the right to bear arms has also been suspended temporarily.

Gunmen killed two Iraqi soldiers and kidnapped three others in a series of shootings on Saturday, amid heightened tensions after troops killed seven anti-government protesters a day earlier.

Iraqi police Colonel Mahmud Khalaf said gunmen separately attacked checkpoints in the east, west and north of the town, leaving two soldiers dead, one wounded, and three kidnapped.

Britain on Saturday pledged an extra £21 million ($33 million, 25 million euros) of humanitarian aid to help civilians caught up in the Syrian conflict.

Some £10 million of the funding will help Jordan cope with the influx of thousands of refugees from across the border, International Development Secretary Justine Greening announced as she visited Jordan's main Zaatari refugee camp.

Syrian rebels freed more than 100 inmates as they battled against regime troops in a major prison outside the northwestern city of Idlib on Saturday, a watchdog said.

At least 10 rebels have been killed since Friday in clashes inside the prison, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists and medics across the war-torn country for its information.

Street clashes killed at least 30 people in Egypt's Port Said on Saturday after 21 supporters of a local football club were sentenced to death over a bloody stadium riot in the canal city.

The violence comes a day after nine were killed in protests against President Mohamed Morsi on the second anniversary of Egypt's uprising against predecessor Hosni Mubarak, in the worst crisis Morsi has faced since taking power in June.

Seven anti-government protesters killed by Iraqi troops were buried on Saturday, followed by a rally calling for Iraq's premier to quit, sharply raising tensions amid weeks of angry demonstrations.

The deaths in the predominantly Sunni town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, were the first since protests began last month, and came as tens of thousands rallied in Sunni areas, railing against alleged targeting of their minority by the Shiite-led authorities.

The U.S. ambassador to Syria on Friday criticized Iran's "unhelpful" role in the Syrian conflict and appealed for more from Russia to help the refugees fleeing their war-torn homeland.

"Iran is playing a very unhelpful role in terms of moving Syria toward a political transition that its people demand," Robert Ford told reporters in Ankara, a day after meeting Syrian refugees in a Turkish border town.

Protests in Jordan against the results of a general election turned violent on Friday injuring four people, and forced police to fire tear gas to disperse demonstrators, an official said.

"Rioting that also saw attacks on houses and public property" wounded four people in the northern province of Irbid, its governor Khaled Abu Zayd told Petra news agency, adding that police intervened successfully breaking up the violence.

Bahraini riot police fired tear gas to disperse an unauthorized demonstration attended by hundreds of protesters in Manama on Friday, witnesses said.

The protest, called by the main Shiite opposition bloc al-Wefaq, chanted anti-regime slogans, including "Down (King) Hamad" -- in reference to the king of Bahrain.

Violence showed no sign of abating on Friday on Syrian battlefields as protesters slammed both the regime and rebels fighting to overthrow it.

The regime's air force launched air raids on several rebel-held towns, including in Damascus province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a broad network of activists, doctors and lawyers.