Militants attacked Tripoli's airport on Friday and killed three security personnel, a Libyan official said, in an assault claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

"An armed group carried out an attack this morning on the prison located on the Mitiga air base, to try to free the detainees," the airport security official said.

Pilgrims from around the world have begun massing in Saudi Arabia for the hajj, one of the biggest gatherings on the planet, undeterred by a crane collapse that killed 108 people at Islam's holiest site.

More than 1.2 million faithful have already arrived for the annual hajj, which begins on Tuesday against a backdrop of increased jihadi violence, a surge of the deadly MERS virus and with the kingdom at war in Yemen.

At least 14 pro-government troops were killed when a Saudi-led coalition air raid targeted their position "by mistake", tribal and military sources said Friday.

"The air force bombed a gathering of fighters in the region of Harib believing them to be Huthi rebels," a military source said.

Israeli police beefed up their numbers in Jerusalem Friday, barring young men from prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque site ahead of what Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas dubbed a "day of rage."

They set up heavily-manned checkpoints on streets leading up to the site in Jerusalem's walled Old City, turning back youngsters, while a police surveillance blimp flew overhead.

Torrential rains in southern Algeria left 12 people dead, including nine foreigners, the country's civil protection unit said on Thursday.

The bodies were collected by civil protection agents after the heavy rains triggered floods early Thursday morning in the town of Tamanrasset, in Algeria's deep south, according to the APS news agency.

The U.N. Security Council appealed for calm and restraint Thursday after three days of clashes this week at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound between Israeli police and Muslim protesters.

In a unanimous declaration, the 15-member panel also expressed its "grave concern" and called for maintaining the rules governing the sensitive site seen as holy by both Muslims and Jews.  

A Mexican tourist who survived an air strike in Egypt recalled a harrowing three-hour bombing that killed eight compatriots, including her husband, whose dying words to her were "I love you."

Susan Calderon's dramatic account was published in the El Universal newspaper on Thursday, hours before she and five other survivors headed home on a Mexican government plane with the foreign minister.

The White House said Thursday it was open to limited talks with Russia following Moscow's deployment of troops and heavy weapons to war-torn Syria.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the United States could be willing to take up a Russian offer of talks so long as they were "tactical, practical discussions."

Pope Francis revealed Thursday that he now wears a cross that belonged to a Iraqi priest who was wearing it when he was slain for his faith.

He said he had been given it by another Iraqi priest he met on St Peter's square.

The Saudi-led coalition backing President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi against Shiite Huthi rebels poured more reinforcements Thursday into central Yemen, where more than 30 people were killed, military sources and witnesses said.

The Iran-backed Shiite rebels, for their part, claimed to have captured several Saudi soldiers, parading one of them on television.