Iraq's fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi on Monday rejected his murder conviction and death sentence and ruled out returning home until he is guaranteed security and a fair trial.

"While reconfirming my absolute innocence and that of my guards, I totally reject and will never recognize the unfair, the unjust, the politically motivated verdict, which was expected from the outset of this funny trial," Hashemi told a news conference in Ankara.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that the new U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi will meet Syrian President Bashar Assad when he travels to the conflict-ravaged country.

"Special representative Brahimi is soon going to have a meeting with Syrian authorities including president Assad, and he has already been engaged with the key stakeholders," Ban told a news conference in Bern, without providing more details about the highly anticipated visit.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Monday for all war criminals in Syria to be brought to justice, as his human rights chief urged a probe into the slaughter of hundreds in the town of Daraya.

"We must ensure that anyone, on any side, who commits war crimes, crimes against humanity or other violations of international human rights or humanitarian law is brought to justice," Ban said in Geneva, where he opened the 21st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Monday called for an immediate probe into the slaughter of hundreds of people in the Syrian town of Daraya late last month.

"I am deeply shocked by the reports of the massacre in Daraya and I urge an immediate and thorough investigation into this incident," she said in an opening address at the 21st session of the U.N.'s Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Syrian warplanes Monday blitzed a string of opposition-held districts in Aleppo, a watchdog said, a day after rebels killed dozens including soldiers in an attack on state buildings in the northern city.

At least five people died and an unknown number were hurt when the warplanes staged waves of bombing raids from early morning on the Marjeh, Sakhur, Hanano, Tariq al-Bab and Sheikh Khodr neighborhoods, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Iran said it was joining officials from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey for a four-way "contact group" meeting in Cairo looking at ways to calm the conflict in Syria.

An Iranian deputy foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, had left Tehran for the Egyptian capital to take part in the meeting, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told Iran's Al-Alam Arabic-language broadcaster.

A Palestinian was shot early Monday by Israeli soldiers who said he had hurled a firebomb at them in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, a military spokeswoman told Agence France Presse.

"Palestinians hurled firebombs at an Israeli army outpost in Hebron. While the soldiers searched the area for suspects, additional firebombs were thrown at them and the soldiers responded with fire," the spokeswoman said.

Israel carried out four air raids against the Gaza Strip early Monday, wounding a Palestinian child, witnesses and Palestinian medics said.

The aircraft also targeted a police post in the El Tufah neighborhood east of Gaza City and carried out two raids in the north of the territory, witnesses said.

A wave of more than 25 attacks across Iraq killed 71 people and wounded more than 350 on Saturday and Sunday, security and medical sources said, with the security forces and markets among the targets.

The latest violence brings the number of people killed already this month to 101, according to an Agence France Presse tally.

U.N. and Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi arrived in Cairo on Sunday where he will hold talks with League officials ahead of an expected visit to Damascus, an airport official said.

Brahimi came from New York via Paris for what is his first visit to the region after taking up his appointment in early September as the peace envoy for Syria, replacing former U.N. chief Kofi Annan.