Three more members of the Iranian women's football team have left their asylum in Australia and decided to return home, Canberra said Sunday.

Seven members of Iran's visiting football delegation competing in the Women's Asian Cup had sought sanctuary in Australia after they were branded "traitors" at home for refusing to sing the national anthem.

Only three of them will now remain in Australia, after another member of the group had second thoughts earlier in the week.

SYDNEY, March 15 (Reuters) - Three members of the Iranian women's soccer team who had sought asylum in Australia have decided to return to Iran, the government said on Sunday.

Australia granted humanitarian visas to seven Iranian footballers last week after they sought asylum, saying they feared persecution if they returned home after they failed to sing the national anthem at a Women's Asian Cup match.

Four of the seven members have decided to leave Australia so far. Another member changed her mind last week.

March 14 (Reuters) - The head of the World Health Organization said on Saturday that it has verified 12 doctors, paramedics and nurses were killed in a strike on the Bourj Qalaouiyeh primary healthcare center in Lebanon late on Friday.

"The killings in the last 24 hours of 14 health workers in southern Lebanon mark a tragic development in the escalating Middle East crisis," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X, noting that earlier in the day two paramedics had been killed in an attack on a health facility in Al Sowana.

FRANKFURT, March 14 (Reuters) - The Swiss government said on Saturday that it discussed requests by U.S. military and official aircraft to fly over the country, and based on its law of neutrality, rejected two but permitted three.

"The law on neutrality prohibits overflights by parties to the conflict that serve a military purpose related to the conflict. Permitted are humanitarian and medical transits, including the transport of wounded persons, as well as overflights that are unrelated to the conflict," the government said in a statement.

Iran's envoy to Ukraine, Shahriar Amouzegar, dismissed the support Kyiv has offered to the United States and its Gulf allies, after Ukraine advertised its expertise in destroying Iranian-designed drones launched by Russia.

Iran has been attacking countries across the region -- including with drones -- in response to US and Israeli airstrikes against Tehran that killed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Turkey's top diplomat said Saturday that Iran was denying responsiblity for firing ballistic missiles towards Turkey despite evidence from technical data.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said he had spoken with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi after NATO defence systems on Friday shot down another ballistic missile from Iran -- the third in nine days.

"Once again, they are not taking responsibility for this incident. They claim they did not order any such attack, nor are they linked to it," Fidan said.

By Steve Holland, Humeyra Pamuk, Parisa Hafezi and Alexander Cornwell

WASHINGTON/DUBAI/TEL AVIV, March 14 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration has rebuffed efforts by Middle Eastern allies to start diplomatic negotiations aimed at ending the Iran war that started two weeks ago with a massive U.S.-Israeli air assault, according to three sources familiar with the efforts.

March 14 (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told MS Now in an interview on Saturday that there is no problem with Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed on Friday that he was wounded and likely disfigured.

(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Toronto;)

JERUSALEM, March 14 (Reuters) - Israel and Lebanon are expected to hold direct talks in the coming days, their first since the start of the Iran war that has drawn Lebanon deeper into conflict, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Saturday, citing two sources with knowledge of the matter.

U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner will be involved in the talks that may be held in Paris or in Cyprus, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's confidant Ron Dermer leading the Israeli delegation, Haaretz said.

By Maayan Lubell and Nazih Osseiran

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT March 14 (Reuters) - The Israeli military warned on Saturday that it may strike ambulances and medical facilities which it said were being used unlawfully by Hezbollah in Lebanon, though it did not provide evidence for the claim.

"As part of its terrorist activities, Hezbollah is using ambulances extensively for military purposes," the Israeli military's Arabic spokesman Avichai Adraee said on X, adding that such use must immediately stop.