An influential relative of Syrian President Bashar Assad, once infamous for smuggling, has been assassinated in a dispute over control of a key government stronghold, a monitor said Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said Mohamed Assad was shot dead on Friday in Latakia province, the heartland of the president's Alawite community.

Western oil workers in Saudi Arabia risk being attacked or kidnapped by "terrorist" groups in the OPEC kingpin, the U.S. embassy in Riyadh said in a warning posted online.

The U.S. mission said it "has information stating that, as of early March, individuals associated with a terrorist organisation could be targeting Western oil workers, possibly to include those U.S. citizens working for oil companies in the Eastern Province, for an attack(s) and/or kidnapping(s)".

The Maronite bishops synod called Saturday on the Arab and Islamic countries to aid Lebanon and help it resolve its crises that were caused by the war raging in the Middle East.

“The Arab and Islamic countries should assume their historic responsibilities to combat extremism and fanaticism and preserve the Christians' existence in the region,” the synod said in its final statement that was read by Maronite Bishop of Batroun Mounir Khairallah.

The $12 billion pledged by three Arab states to Egypt at an international conference this weekend is a message of "clear political support" to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a minister said Saturday.

Sisi, who ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and brutally crushed his supporters, has sought to persuade allies that his country is on the front lines of a war against regional militants. 

Syrian warplanes raided on Saturday posts controlled by gunmen on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal.

The state-run National News Agency reported that the targeted positions lie in Khirbet Younine area on the outskirts of Arsal in Lebanon's Eastern Mountain range.

A decision by the United Arab Emirates to deport Lebanese expats from the Gulf country is reportedly related to their staunch support to Hizbullah and its allies.

Information obtained by al-Mustaqbal newspaper on Saturday said that the move comes in light of a speech by Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah which contained a strong attack against countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

CIA Director John Brennan said Friday the United States does not want to see a chaotic collapse of the Syrian regime as it could open the way to Islamist extremists taking power.

The spy agency chief said Washington had reason to worry about who might replace President Bashar al-Assad if his government fell, given the rise of the Islamic State group and other jihadists in Syria.

Republicans hammering the Obama administration about nuclear talks with Iran have stepped up their criticism on a second front: accusing President Barack Obama of being so keen to strike a deal that he's ignored Iranian moves to expand its influence across the Middle East.

Republican Party hawks maintain that Obama wants so much to burnish his legacy with an agreement to restrain Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed state that he is not pushing back against Iranian activities in Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Bahrain. Secretary of State John Kerry has defended the administration repeatedly against a barrage of questions from lawmakers, including some who insist that the nuclear negotiations have hamstrung U.S. policy decisions in the region.

Aid agencies have found themselves frustrated and increasingly bitter as the Syrian conflict enters a fifth, blood-soaked year and those in need of help become ever-harder to reach.

"By comparison, Somalia and Afghanistan seem simple," said Jean-Herve Bradol of the Centre For Reflection on Humanitarian Knowledge and Action, a French think-tank linked to Doctors Without Borders.

A child who appears to execute an Arab Israeli in a video released this week by the Islamic State group is said to have been recognized by classmates in France, an official said Friday.

The schools inspector in the Haute-Garonne district in southern France said students in the city of Toulouse believe they recognized the boy, who appears to be no more than 12.