Yemeni warplanes killed at least five al-Qaida-linked militants in overnight airstrikes against hideouts in the southern Abyan province, a security official said Tuesday.

The official said the attacks late on Monday concentrated on the al-Mahfad area, where militants took refuge after they were driven out from strongholds in the city of Zinjibar and the nearby town of Jaar, both of which the army recaptured from militants two months ago.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi named outgoing irrigation minister Hisham Qandil on Tuesday as the country's new prime minister and tasked him with forming a cabinet, state television announced.

The appointment comes 25 days after Morsi was sworn in as Egypt's first civilian and freely elected head of state to replace Hosni Mubarak, who was driven from office by a popular uprising early last year.

Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons is "under the full control" of the regime of President Bashar Assad, a top Israeli defense official said on Tuesday.

"At the moment, the Syrian regime is fighting for its very existence, but all of its chemical weapons and its weapons of mass destruction are under full control of the regime," Amos Gilad said in an interview on public radio.

Iraq will set up camps at two of its three border crossings with Syria to provide support for Syrian refugees fleeing the conflict in their homeland, a government spokesman said on Tuesday.

Iraq had initially said it would not accept Syrian refugees because it needed its police and army to maintain security within the country, but Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki changed Baghdad's policy on Monday.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Syrian opposition was close to victory, and warned that Ankara was ready to respond to any "hostile" action by the Damascus regime.

"We think that the Syrian people are closer than ever to victory," Erdogan said at a dinner on Monday, according to the Anatolia news agency.

The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) will not accept a unity government led by a member of the regime, spokeswoman Bassma Kodmani said Tuesday, contradicting a statement by another SNC member.

"There was never any question of a national unity government led by a member of the regime," Kodmani told Agence France Presse.

Saudi Arabia collected nearly $32.5 million on the first day of a fundraising campaign to support people in Syria, where an uprising has left thousands dead, according to official figures on Tuesday.

"The total cash donations collected by the national Saudi campaign in support of the brothers in Syria reached 121,771,811 riyals ($32.5 million) on the first day (Monday)," official news agency SPA

Gaps in U.S. intelligence have hampered Washington's efforts to speed the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad and develop a clear understanding of opposition forces inside the country, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Citing interviews with U.S. and foreign intelligence officials, the daily reported that U.S. spy agencies in recent months have expanded their efforts to gather intelligence on rebel forces and Assad's regime.

Security was tightened on Tuesday in Baghdad neighborhoods engulfed by a wave of nationwide violence which saw 113 people killed and 250 wounded in Iraq's deadliest day in two and a half years.

Monday's spate of bombings and shootings, which drew widespread international condemnation, came after al-Qaida warned it would seek to retake territory and mount new attacks.

Shelling in the town of Herak, south of Damascus, killed seven people, six of them children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, taking the nationwide death toll for Tuesday to 33.

"At least seven civilians, including six children, were killed by regime forces shelling of the besieged town of Herak," the Britain-based watchdog said.