Saudi Arabia warned Saturday it would back Yemen's government in any military confrontation with separatist forces and urged them to withdraw "peacefully" from recently-seized provinces.

The statements came a day after reported Saudi air strikes on separatist positions in Yemen's Hadramawt province -- and after Washington called for restraint in the rapidly escalating conflict.

General Turki al-Malki, the spokesman for the Riyadh-led groups, said they would act "directly and at the appropriate moment ... to protect civilian life", according to the Saudi news agency SPA.

CAIRO, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Yemen's Saudi-led coalition said any military moves by the main southern separatist group STC in the eastern province of Hadramout contrary to de-escalation efforts will be dealt with to protect civilians, the Saudi state news agency reported on Saturday.

Somalia and the African Union reacted angrily Friday after Israel became the first country to formally recognise the northern region of Somaliland as an independent state.

Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 and has pushed for international recognition for decades, with president Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi making it a top priority since taking office last year.

LONDON, Dec 26 (Reuters) - High-profile activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who was released from prison after an Egyptian presidential pardon in September, has arrived in Britain, the Egyptian-British campaigner's family and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Friday.

Abd el-Fattah, 44, has become Egypt's most prominent political prisoner after spending much of his adult life in and out of detention due to his activism, and a rare symbol of opposition to a far-reaching crackdown under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

(Fixes spelling in "breakaway" in headline)

Dec 26 (Reuters) - Israel has recognised Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia, as an "independent and sovereign state," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday, making Israel the first country to do so.

(Reporting by Maayan Lubell and George Obulutsa, Editing by Louise Heavens)

JERUSALEM, Dec 26 (Reuters) - A Palestinian assailant ran over a man and stabbed a woman and killed them both in northern Israel on Friday, Israeli emergency services said.

The assailant, from the occupied West Bank, was shot and wounded by a civilian at the scene and taken to hospital, the Israeli police said in a statement.

"This was a rolling terror attack," the police added.

JERUSALEM, Dec 26 (Reuters) - An Israeli reservist soldier rammed his vehicle into a Palestinian man as he prayed on a roadside in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, after earlier firing shots in the area, the Israeli military said.

"Footage was received of an armed individual running over a Palestinian individual," it said in a statement, adding the individual was a reservist and his military service had been terminated.

The reservist acted "in severe violation of his authority" and his weapon had been confiscated, the military said.

An explosion killed at least eight worshippers at a mosque in a predominantly Alawite area of Syria's Homs on Friday, state media said, with an Islamist militant group claiming responsibility.

The attack during Friday prayers is the latest on the Alawite community, and the second blast in a place of worship since Islamist authorities took power a year ago, after a suicide bombing in a Damascus church killed 25 people in June.

DUBAI, Dec 26 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates welcomes Saudi Arabian efforts to support security and stability in Yemen and remains committed to backing stability in the country, the UAE’s foreign ministry said on Friday.

Yemen's main southern separatist group, the Southern Transitional Council (STC), which is supported by Abu Dhabi, has pushed the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government from its headquarters in Aden while claiming broad control across the south earlier this month.

Saint Peter's, one of the world's oldest rock churches, is a sacred rallying point for the isolated Christians still left in quake-hit Antakya in southeastern Turkey, the city known in ancient times as Antioch.

"Since the earthquake, our community has scattered," said worshipper Mari Ibri.

"Those who remain are trying to regroup. We each had our own church but, like mine, they have been destroyed."