Thirty-six Islamist prisoners were killed in Egypt on Sunday during an attempted prison break, the official MENA news agency reported.

"A security official has confirmed that 36 Muslim Brotherhood elements were killed during an attempt to escape," the agency reported.

Libyan Interior Minister Mohamed Khalifa al-Sheikh tendered his resignation on Sunday, just three months into the job, his spokesman said, as unrest escalates in the North African country.

Sheikh became the second cabinet minister to quit since August 4 when deputy prime minister Awadh al-Barassi stepped down citing the government's inability to contain unrest.

Egyptian Nobel laureate Mohammed ElBaradei, who resigned as vice-president in protest over a bloody crackdown on supporters of ousted leader Mohammed Morsi, arrived in Vienna on Sunday.

The respected former chief of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was spotted at the airport in the Austrian capital, but gave no comment to journalists.

U.S. lawmakers on Sunday were split over whether to cut military aid to Egypt, a key regional ally, after its violent crackdown on supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

While condemning the use of force by the military-backed interim government, many lawmakers expressed concern that halting aid would further erode U.S. influence over the most populous Arab country.

Egypt's army chief vowed Sunday to stand firm in the face of violence by Islamists, in his first remarks since a deadly crackdown on supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi.

"Whoever imagines violence will make the state and Egyptians kneel must reconsider; we will never be silent in the face of the destruction of the country," said Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Fierce fighting raged in Latakia province on Syria's coastline on Sunday, as the army pushed an advance and killed a jihadist leader, a monitoring group said.

The regime deployed massive reinforcements to fight rebels in Latakia, which has strategic and symbolic significance because it is the ancestral home of President Bashar Assad's clan.

Thousands of Syrian Kurds have poured into Iraq over the past few days, to escape deadly clashes between Kurdish fighters and jihadists and seeking a respite from privation.

The U.N. says more than 15,000 refugees have crossed into Iraq in the latest influx since Thursday, with more expected to follow.

Supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi canceled some Cairo marches Sunday for "security reasons", as the military chief vowed to face down violent protests following Egypt's bloodiest week in decades.

The latest developments come as senior European Union diplomats were to hold emergency talks Tuesday in Brussels to discuss the situation in Egypt and any future EU action.

Around 10,000 people took part in a demonstration in the Moroccan capital on Sunday in support of Islamists in Egypt locked in a deadly showdown with security forces.

The crowd carried banners condemning the police operations that have cost hundreds of lives among demonstrators demanding the reinstatement of Egypt's army-ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi and posters showing the dead in makeshift morgues in Cairo.

Syria's President Bashar Assad said on Sunday he is determined to "eradicate terrorism" which he blames for the conflict raging in his country, according to state news agency SANA.

"Syria has welcomed all constructive, genuine efforts to find a political solution to the crisis" that erupted in March 2011, Assad was quoted as saying.