Iran's Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan on Saturday inaugurated the production line of an anti-missile system dubbed the Sayyad-2 ((Hunter 2), media reported.

"In order to counter aerial attack, we have put the production of the Sayyad-2 missile system on the agenda," Dehqan said on state television during the inauguration ceremony.

Deadly clashes resumed Saturday between Zaidi Shiite rebels and Sunni Islamists in northern Yemen, both sides said, a day after the Red Cross evacuated 44 wounded during a lull.

The fighting, which first erupted late last month, has centred on a Salafist mosque and Koranic school in the town of Dammaj that has been besieged by the rebels, known as Huthis after their leading family.

Materiel resembling mortar shells seized in a Turkish village near the border with Syria turned out not to contain explosives as initially feared, police said late Friday.

"After analysis it turns out that contrary to press reports the materiel seized looks like mortar shells but is not explosive," a police statement said.

Syria's splintered opposition coalition insisted Saturday it would not go to peace talks in Geneva unless pressure was brought to bear on Damascus to abide by the outcome.

"We have always said that we are fully committed to Geneva. But we are worried that if we go there the Assad regime is not serious about the implementation of Geneva," said coalition spokesman Khaled Saleh.

A string of attacks in eastern Libya has killed a public prosecutor and three members of the security forces in less than 24 hours, judicial and medical sources said Saturday.

Since the ouster of veteran dictator Moammar Gadhafi in October 2011, eastern Libya has been hit by a wave of bombings and shootings, mostly targeting security officials.

Syrian rebels retook a strategic base in the northern Aleppo province on Saturday, as shelling killed at least 11 people in nearby Aleppo city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The group said rebels, including jihadists from two al-Qaida affiliates, launched a nighttime counterattack against regime forces, after they captured parts of the base on Friday.

The Ethiopian government is repatriating its citizens living in Saudi Arabia illegally, after reports that an Ethiopian was killed by Saudi police, officials said Saturday.

Last April, the Saudi government issued an amnesty period giving illegal immigrants seven months to gain legal status or leave the country.

A child and another person died Friday in clashes between supporters and opponents of Egypt's ousted president in Cairo, state news agency MENA said, as Mohammed Morsi's backers protested in several cities.

The 12-year-old boy and a man died in Cairo's southern Giza neighborhood, MENA quoted emergency services as saying.

Two air strikes by the Yemeni air force killed five suspected Al-Qaida members in southern Yemen on Friday, the interior ministry said.

The strikes targeted suspected militants in the town of Al-Mahfad, in the southern province of Abyan, the ministry said on its website.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's imminent visit to North Africa has been postponed, Algiers announced on Friday, just hours after the top U.S. diplomat flew to Geneva for Iranian nuclear talks.

Washington has yet to confirm the last-minute cancellation of the planned visit to Algeria and Morocco, which had been due to take place over the coming days.