Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Syrian President Bashar Assad Monday that his days as leader were numbered and he cannot remain in power indefinitely through military force.

After reports that two buses carrying Turkish pilgrims came under attack in Syria, Erdogan said his one-time ally's defiant refusal to end a bloody crackdown on protesters had increased the prospects of foreign intervention.

A top Yemeni army officer was killed in battle between elite troops and dissident tribesmen who took over a strategic military base north of Sanaa, the defense ministry and tribal sources said Monday.

"Colonel Abdulsalam al-Sufyani, head of operations of the Third Brigade" was killed in an attack on the brigade's base in Arhab, 40 kilometers north of the capital, defense ministry website26sep.net reported.

Iran angrily stayed away Monday from a U.N. atomic agency forum on creating a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, amid growing tensions over Tehran's suspected efforts to develop the bomb.

Iran's ambassador to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Tehran's decision was its "first reaction" to the body's "inappropriate" recent report on its nuclear program.

Russia on Monday accused the West of provocative behavior in the Syrian crisis, saying Western countries were telling the opposition to forget dialogue with President Bashar Assad.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the West's behavior in this respect was "similar to a political provocation at an international level", news agencies reported.

Two buses carrying Turkish pilgrims came under fire in neighboring Syria early Monday as they were travelling back from the hajj in Saudi Arabia, leaving two people injured, reports said.

The "armed attack" occurred between the flashpoint cities of Hama and Homs, Turkey's semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

At least 12 Syrians were shot dead Monday in raids by security forces in the central provinces of Homs and Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The state news agency SANA said four "terrorists" were killed, including a suspect high on a wanted list, while also reporting that two judges were kidnapped in Hama.

Iran has summoned Bahrain's charge d'affaires to reject "baseless claims" by Manama that a "terrorist" cell said to have been recently busted in Bahrain had links to Tehran, according to the website of state television Monday.

The Bahraini diplomat was reportedly summoned Sunday to the foreign ministry, a week after Iran complained publicly of the "ridiculous" claims.

Jordan's King Abdullah II on Monday landed in the West Bank city of Ramallah for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his first visit in more than a decade.

His helicopter was greeted by a large official delegation as it touched down inside the presidential compound, the Muqataa, an Agence France Presse correspondent said.

Iran dares Israel to attack, because the retaliation would send the Jewish state to "the dustbin of history," a senior Revolutionary Guards commander said, according to the Fars news agency Monday.

"Our greatest wish is that they commit such a mistake," the chief of the Guards' Aerospatiale division, Amir-Ali Hadjizadeh, was quoted as saying.

The death toll from clashes between protesters and police around the country over the past three days has climbed to 33, morgue officials told Agence France Presse on Monday.

The health ministry has confirmed 22 of the deaths.