Egyptian presidential candidate Mohamed elBaradei has accused Islamist parties which won a majority in elections last week of relying on slogans which he said would be laid bare if they gained power.

The Islamists picked up two-thirds of votes cast for parties in the election last Monday and Tuesday in a third of Egypt's districts, with a new hardline Salafi party winning almost a quarter.

A civilian was killed as a shell hit a bus in Yemen's flashpoint city of Taez where fighting has cost more than 30 lives since last week, medics said on Tuesday.

The bus was heading towards the restive northern al-Hasab district late on Monday when it was hit by an artillery round fired by troops loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the sources said.

Members of Iraqi online jihadist forums have called for fighters and arms to be sent to aid Syrians opposing President Bashar al-Assad's regime, who have faced a bloody crackdown since March.

Sunni jihadist sites such as Honein and Ansar al-Mujahedeen display numerous comments and articles critical of Assad's regime, and videos of bloody events they say took place in Syria.

A wave of bomb attacks targeting Shiite pilgrims in Iraq killed 28 people and wounded 78 Monday, a day before the peak of the Ashoura religious commemorations, security officials and medics said.

It was the bloodiest day in Iraq since October 27, when at least 32 people were killed and 71 wounded in twin blasts in Baghdad.

Thirty-four Syrians abducted by pro-regime "shabiha" militiamen were found dead on Monday in the flashpoint central city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

The Britain-based watchdog said an activist on the ground reported seeing "the bodies of 34 civilians, in a square in the pro-regime neighborhood of al-Zahra, who had been abducted by the shabiha on Monday."

Israeli troops were on very high alert along the southern border with the Egyptian Sinai on Monday over fears a cell of gunmen had crossed the border into southern Israel, a security source told Agence France Presse.

The state of alert was based on "intelligence information about a cell of terrorists planning an attack" on a road which runs close to the border in the southern Negev desert, the source said.

Jordan has told the Arab League it does not want to impose trade sanctions and a flight ban on neighboring Syria, the foreign ministry said on Monday.

"We asked the Arab League ministerial committee in Doha last Saturday to exclude Jordan's trade and aviation sectors from the sanctions," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Kayed told Agence France Presse.

Russia is downgrading its relations with the Gulf state of Qatar following an airport attack on its ambassador, the foreign ministry said on Monday.

The ministry said Moscow's ambassador to Doha "was attacked by security and customs personnel" who were trying to strip him of his diplomatic bag.

Syria said Monday it will accept observers as part of an Arab League plan to end deadly unrest if its conditions are met, in a last-ditch bid to stave off crippling sanctions.

"The Syrian government responded positively to the signing of the protocol" on the dispatch of observers "based on the Syrian understanding of this cooperation," foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Maqdesi told reporters.

Forces loyal to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh shot dead a woman and wounded six other people when they opened fire on a crowd of protesters in the city of Taez on Monday, medics said.

The protest was over an immunity clause in the Gulf-sponsored transition plan which Saleh signed last month to hand power over to his deputy, Vice President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi.