Iraqi, Syrian soldiers killed in western Iraq

Gunmen on Monday killed at least 35 Iraqi and Syrian soldiers in an attack on a military convoy in Iraq's western province of Anbar, police said.

The Iraqi army convoy was transporting to a border crossing Syrian soldiers who had received medical treatment in Iraq.

Around 30 Syrian soldiers entered Iraq last week after Syrian rebels seized the Yarubiyah border crossing point with Iraq's northern city of Mosul.

Fifteen soldiers were also injured in the attack, which raises concerns that Syria's civil war could engulf Iraq.

Iraq says it remains neutral towards the conflict in Syria, despite the Shiite-led government's alliance with Iran, which backs President Bashar al-Assad.

It is not clear if Syrian rebels were behind the attack.

In Syria, government forces were trying to storm rebel-held areas in the central city of Homs, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman told dpa.

He said more than 300 people, including 116 government soldiers and some 104 rebels, had been killed in fighting there since Sunday.

The attack coincided with a pledge by the United States and Saudi Arabia to extend more support to rebels fighting to unseat al-Assad.

US Secretary of State John Kerry stopped short of backing a Saudi call to arm the rebels during talks with Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal in Riyadh.

"The Kingdom stressed the Syrian people's right to self-defence against the regime's machine of killing and destruction," al-Faisal said after the meeting.

The foreign minister said that assistance to the opposition should not be limited to humanitarian aid, referring to his country's repeated call for arming the rebels.

Kerry did not reject arming the rebels, but warned against the threat that weapons could "make their way into the extremists' hands."

In December, the US State Department listed hardline resistance group al-Nousra Front as a terrorist organization.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar are believed to be supplying weapons to the rebels.

"The United States will continue to work with our friends to empower the Syrian opposition to hopefully be able to bring about a peaceful resolution," Kerry said.

Last week, on the sidelines of an international conference in Rome, Kerry said that the United States would not provide military assistance, but will give food, medical and financial aid so that the opposition can provide security in the rebel-held areas of Syria.