The Yemeni army has killed seven suspected al-Qaida militants in an artillery strike on Zinjibar, an extremist stronghold in the restive southern Abyan province, a military official said on Thursday.

The assault follows one of the deadliest al-Qaida attacks on Yemeni security forces in the southern outskirts of Zinjibar on Sunday that killed 185 troops.

United Nations and Arab League special envoy to Syria Kofi Annan on Thursday urged the Syrian opposition to cooperate to resolve the conflict that has left thousands dead in the past year.

Former U.N. chief Annan, speaking to reporters in Cairo, urged "the Syrian opposition to come together to work with us to find a solution that will respect the aspirations of the Syrian people."

Syrian opposition leader Burhan Ghalioun on Thursday welcomed the defection of the deputy oil minister and told Agence France Presse he expects more government officials and politicians to follow suit.

"I hail the deputy (oil) minister who defected and I call on all government members and public servants ... to abandon this regime and join the ranks of the revolution for freedom and dignity," said Ghalioun, head of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group.

Israel's leaders are "wantonly disregarding" the country's ability to cope with a war as tensions rise over a possible confrontation with Iran, an MP in charge of home front preparations has told Agence France Presse.

Zeev Bielsky, who heads the parliamentary committee for home front preparedness, said there was a dire shortage of gas masks ready for use in the event of a war.

The United States offered Israel advanced weaponry in return for it committing not to attack Iran's nuclear facilities this year, Israeli daily Maariv reported on Thursday.

Citing unnamed Western diplomats and intelligence sources, the report said that during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington this week, the U.S. administration offered to supply Israel with advanced bunker-busting bombs and long-range refueling planes.

Syria's deputy oil minister resigned on Thursday, becoming the most senior official to join the rebel ranks, as Washington revealed it is mulling non-lethal aid to the insurgency.

Abdo Hussameddin announced his resignation in a video posted by activists on YouTube, saying he was joining the revolt.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday the United States is looking at delivering radios or other non-lethal aid to Syria's rebel forces but warned of the risks of military action against President Bashar al-Assad's regime without international consensus or a unified opposition.

While outraged at the killing of civilians in Syria, the U.S. government is opposed to taking "unilateral" military action and favors pursuing diplomacy to force Assad to step down, Panetta told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Tunisia has accepted that Saudi Arabia will probably never hand over ousted leader Zine el Abidine Ben Ali to face trial in his homeland, the new president said in an interview to be broadcast Thursday.

Former president Ben Ali has lived in exile with his wife Leila in Saudi Arabia since January 14, 2011, when he fled Tunisia amid an uprising that sparked a string of regional protests known as the Arab Spring.

The U.N. humanitarian chief briefly visited the battered Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr with a Syrian Red Crescent team on Wednesday, as Washington revealed it is mulling non-lethal aid to the rebels.

Valerie Amos was stopped from going into areas of Homs still held by the opposition, despite receiving assurances from Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in earlier talks that she could go to any part of the country, her spokeswoman Amanda Pitt told Agence France Presse.

Syria's armed opposition groups cannot defeat President Bashar al-Assad's forces, a think-tank expert said Wednesday.

Toby Dodge, the senior Middle East expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), said the fractured nature of the opposition forces meant they were more of an "irritant" to the regime than a threat.