Hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims massed in a valley near the Saudi holy city of Mina on Sunday for the stoning of Satan, the last and most dangerous rite of the annual hajj.

Hundreds of people have been trampled to death in stampedes which have blighted several previous pilgrimages to Islam's holiest sites when the faithful rush to hurl stones at huge pillars symbolizing the devil.

Israeli President Shimon Peres warned on Sunday that an attack on Iran is becoming increasingly likely, days before a report by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog on Iran's nuclear program is due.

"The possibility of a military attack against Iran is now closer to being applied than the application of a diplomatic option," Peres told the Israel Hayom daily.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh made a fresh appeal Saturday for dialogue "for a peaceful transition according to the constitution", while accusing the opposition of blocking attempts to end the crisis that has shaken Yemen for the past 10 months

In a message marking the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, Saleh invited the opposition to "sit at the negotiating table to resolve disputed questions related to the implementation" of a transition plan drafted by Gulf monarchies.

Clashes in the restive Syrian city of Homs killed ten civilians, while four pro-regime militiamen died in Idlib province on Saturday, a human rights group said.

At least six civilians were killed by gunfire in the central city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in statements received in Nicosia.

A member of the militant group Islamic Jihad was killed and three other Palestinians were wounded in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian medics and witnesses said.

Security sources said three raids targeted Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, with the initial two not causing casualties.

A Syrian filmmaker has gone missing and is believed abducted by the security services, while a lawyer is among a number of women rounded up in Damascus, a rights groups said on Saturday.

Film director Nidal Hassan went missing on Thursday, with his associates believing he has been "abducted by the security services due to his support" of anti-government protests, the Syrian League for the Defense of Human Rights said in a statement.

Iran has affirmed to the U.N. chief that one of the suspects in an assassination plot on U.S. soil belongs to an Iranian exile group that is seeking to overthrow its Islamic regime, media reports said Saturday.

A police probe into one of the suspects, following an Interpol request, suggested the individual "is a member of the Mujahedeen-e Khalq Organization," the Tehran mission in the United Nations said in a letter to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday, the official IRNA news agency reported.

King Abdullah on Saturday named his half-brother Prince Salman, who is governor of Riyadh, as Saudi Arabia's defense minister to succeed the late Crown Prince Sultan, state television al-Ekhbariya said.

Although Prince Salman served as governor for more than half a century, he has not previously held a ministerial post.

Iraqi Kurd leader Massud Barzani said Saturday he opposes Turkey's military campaign against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq as it will fail to permanently end the conflict.

Barzani arrived in Ankara Thursday for talks focused on Turkey's ongoing operation against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Israel has freed six of 27 passengers and crew who were aboard two ships intercepted by its navy while trying to run the Jewish state's blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, an official said on Saturday.

Commandos boarded the Irish-flagged Saoirse (Freedom) and the Canadian ship Tahrir (Arabic for Liberation) in international waters off Gaza on Friday before the navy escorted them to the port of Ashdod, the military said.