The International Criminal Court has opened a preliminary probe into Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010, the prosecutor's office said Tuesday.

"My office will be conducting a preliminary examination in order to establish whether the criteria for opening an investigation are met," Fatou Bensouda said in a statement issued from the court based in The Hague.

Gunmen armed with silenced weapons shot dead 12 people at alcohol shops in the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, while four people died in other attacks, security and medical officials said.

The gunmen, who were travelling in four vehicles, restrained federal policemen at a checkpoint in the Zayouna area of Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.

A Syrian rebel who was filmed apparently cutting out and eating the organs of a soldier has defended his actions as revenge for regime atrocities, Time magazine reported on Tuesday.

The U.S. news weekly said it had talked by Skype with the fighter, identified as Khalid al-Hamad, who appeared in a video that sparked outrage and condemnation, including from the Syrian opposition.

More than 94,000 people have been killed in more than two years of conflict in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a newly-revised toll on Tuesday.

The watchdog group said it revised the toll -- just two days after it announced a tally of 82,257 dead -- after receiving new information from regime-controlled Alawite areas of the Sunni-majority country.

Syria wants more details of a Russian and U.S. proposal for a peace conference before deciding whether to attend, Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi has said.

Interviewed late Tuesday by the Lebanese Al-Manar television, Zohbi also insisted that Syrian President Bashar Assad's future would be decided at the ballot box.

Three International Committee of the Red Cross employees kidnapped by Yemeni tribesmen are in good health, but the demands of their captors remain unknown, an ICRC spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

But a tribal dignitary who is involved in negotiations to secure the hostages' release told Agence France Presse later on Tuesday that the kidnappers were demanding that the trial of fellow tribesman Abdelbaset al-Markashi be moved to their hometown Jaar from the main southern city of Aden.

The vacant Syrian seat at the Arab League has not been given to the opposition, even though its leader addressed the bloc's last summit, the League's secretary general said on Tuesday.

"The opinion was that if they (opposition) form a government, which they have not done yet, then they can become a representative," Nabil al-Arabi told reporters in Dubai.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday warned against any moves that would further destabilize the situation in Syria, speaking after talks with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"In this crucial period it is especially important to avoid any moves that can shake the situation," Putin was quoted as saying by news agencies, days after Israeli forces launched air strikes against regime targets in Syria.

Jordan's foreign ministry said on Tuesday Amman will host a meeting of the so-called "Friends of Syria" group next week to discuss latest developments in Syria's civil war.

"The foreign ministers of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, the United States, Britain, France, Turkey, Germany and Italy will hold a meeting in Amman in mid-next week," ministry spokeswoman Sabah Rafei told Agence France Presse.

A Moroccan street vendor in the southern city of Marrakesh died in hospital after setting himself on fire in protest at having his goods confiscated by the authorities, various sources said on Tuesday.

Mbarek el-Karassi, 32, died on Monday evening from severe burns to the face, hands and stomach, said Mohammed Ghalloussi, a local representative of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights.