A series of bombings mainly targeting Shiite areas of Baghdad killed at least 21 people on Sunday, officials said, in the latest violence to hit Iraq as it struggles with protests and a political crisis.

Three car bombs struck the sprawling Sadr City slum in the north of the city, car bombs exploded in Ameen, al-Husseiniyah and Kamaliyah in the east, and a roadside bomb blew up in Karrada in central Baghdad, security and medics said.

Exposure of intelligence activities can "badly damage" state security, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday in his first remarks on the arrest and death of a jailed Australian-Israeli with Mossad links.

In remarks to his outgoing cabinet, the Israeli prime minister insisted that the security forces be allowed to "quietly" get on with their jobs, in his first remarks on the mysterious spy saga which has dominated headlines in Israel and Australia.

Yemeni authorities have freed a Dutch man held captive for a week after being kidnapped by tribesmen in the country's west, the interior ministry announced on Sunday.

"Security forces freed a Dutch man kidnapped a week ago by tribesmen between the towns of Hard in Hajja province and al-Zaidiya in Hodeida province," the ministry said in a statement on defense ministry news website 26sep.net.

The U.N. rights chief said Saturday that the international community was hesitating to take action on Syria because countries were weighing up whether any military intervention would be worth it.

Urging that some sort of international action be taken against Syrian President Bashar Assad, Navi Pillay repeated her call for him to be investigated for "crimes against humanity and war crimes.”

Egypt will arm low ranking policemen with pistols, a security source said on Saturday, after they held protests demanding weapons and better work conditions amid a spike in violent crime.

Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim agreed to import 100,000 pistols, the source said, after almost a week of protests by policemen.

Clashes broke out on Saturday at the funeral in Bahrain of a teenager killed in protests marking the second anniversary of a Shiite-led uprising, with police using tear gas against mourners, witnesses said.

The security forces blocked access to Hussein al-Jaziri's funeral in the Shiite-populated village of Daih near the capital Manama, firing tear gas and stun grenades to disperse dozens of people trying to push their way through.

The Israeli army on Saturday evacuated seven Syrians wounded in clashes on the Golan Heights and took them to a hospital inside the Jewish state, where they were being treated for their injuries.

A spokeswoman for the Ziv hospital in Safed told Agence France Presse the army had on Saturday afternoon brought in seven wounded people, all of whom have been operated on.

Egypt's interior ministry said on Saturday police arrested 60 people across the country during violent protests the night before targeting government and police buildings.

In Cairo, police arrested 30 people in clashes outside one of the presidential palaces, the ministry said in a statement.

More than 300 people were abducted by armed groups in northwestern Syria over two days in an unprecedented string of sectarian kidnappings, a watchdog and residents said on Saturday.

The spate of abductions, involving large numbers of women and children, began on Thursday when upwards of 40 civilians from the majority-Shiite villages of Fua and Kafraya were kidnapped by armed groups in Idlib province.

Thousands of members of the Islamist party Ennahda rallied on Saturday in support of its right to rule and against plans to form a government of technocrats aimed at resolving Tunisia's political crisis.

An estimated 15,000 protesters, many waving party flags and some holding black Salafist banners, thronged Habib Bourguiba Avenue, a Tunis boulevard that was the cradle of the 2011 uprising which ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.