Attacks across Iraq, including more than a dozen car bombs, killed at least 46 people on Sunday while the head of Baghdad's provincial council escaped an assassination attempt on his convoy.

The violence was the latest in months of unrelenting bloodshed, the country's worst since 2008, that has sparked concern Iraq is slipping back into the all-out sectarian war of previous years that killed tens of thousands.

The jihadist al-Nusra Front said in an Internet statement on Sunday its fighters attacked three villages in Syria's Homs province and killed dozens of Alawites five days earlier.

"The people's wall of fear has been broken, as this was the first time these villages were entered and such a high number was killed," the al-Qaida-linked group said in the statement published on a jihadist forum.

A police chief in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden escaped injury on Sunday when a bomb exploded as his car passed by, a security source said.

The armored vehicle carrying special forces General Abdelhafedh al-Saqqaf was on a road near Aden airport when the device went off, the source said.

An Egyptian journalist on Sunday appeared before a military court, accused of spreading lies about the army's campaign against militants in the Sinai Peninsula.

The court in the Suez canal city of Ismailiya adjourned Ahmed Abu Deraa's hearing to September 18.

Canadian Foreign Minster John Baird said Sunday on a visit to Algeria that the use of chemical weapons in the Syria conflict was a "crime against humanity".

"The use of chemical weapons by President Bashar Assad's government against the children of the Syrian people is a crime against humanity," he said at a news conference with his host and counterpart Ramtane Lamamra.

French President Francois Hollande will meet Monday with Britain's top diplomat William Hague and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for talks on the Syria crisis, the presidency said Sunday.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius will also be present at the meeting, which will take place at 0745 GMT, and he will then hold a working lunch with his British and U.S. counterparts, it added.

U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos urged Tehran at the end of a visit on Sunday to use its influence with ally Syria to allow greater aid access to the country.

"I asked the foreign minister (Mohammad Javad Zarif) to use Iran's influence with the (Syrian) government to continue to press for greater access for humanitarian organizations," she told a news conference.

Iran on Sunday hailed the decision of its ally Syria to join the chemical weapons convention, a day after the United Nations formally accepted its request to sign up, Fars news agency reported.

"Iran welcomes Syria's joining the chemical weapons convention," it quoted foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham as saying.

The threat of U.S. military action against Syria remains "real", Washington's top diplomat said on Sunday a day after striking a deal with Russia to destroy Damascus' chemical weapons stockpile.

"The threat of force remains, the threat is real," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said at a news conference in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Rebel fighters have expressed disdain for U.S. President Barack Obama after he backed away from striking over alleged chemical weapons attacks, saying the world does not care about Syria.

Leaders of two rebel brigades in the northern city of Aleppo, speaking to Agence France Presse after agreeing to join forces, also accused Russia and the regime of Bashar Assad of conspiring to buy time for the Syrian president to press his campaign against those seeking to overthrow him.