Four of the remaining nine Lebanese pilgrims, who were kidnapped in Syria in May, will be released by the end of November, media reports said on Thursday.

Al-Joumhouria newspaper said a mediator, identified as Abou Mohammed, hinted that one of the men will be released on Saturday.

Syrian President Bashar Assad congratulated on Wednesday President Michel Suleiman on the occasion of Lebanon's Independence Day.

The Syrian national news agency SANA reported that Assad's letter contained a felicitation from the Syrian people to “their brothers in Lebanon”.

Officials say Turkey has requested deployment of NATO's Patriot air defense missiles over concerns about Syria's civil war.

Turkish officials have become increasingly concerned about the civil war spilling over the border. A statement from the Turkish government said the request has been made in the "face of risks from the ongoing crisis in Syria."

The Syrian opposition will need $60 billion in Marshall Plan-style aid to prevent the country's collapse within six months of a fall of the regime, prominent leader George Sabra told reporters on Wednesday.

He urged a "Partnership to Invest in Future Syria" meeting held in Dubai to immediately launch a Marshall Plan for the Arab country, along the lines of the huge post-World War II recovery program for Europe.

A mortar shell smashed into a Damascus upmarket district that houses several embassies, killing one person and injuring several others, a watchdog and Syria's official media said on Wednesday.

The blast in Abu Rummaneh occurred on Tuesday, marking the first time the wealthy district has been targeted since the outbreak of an anti-regime revolt in March 2011.

Eighteen-year-old Youssef Ali Bazzal was freed on Wednesday in Syria after his family paid a sum of money to win his release, media reports said.

According to the National News Agency, Bazzal's family paid the kidnappers around $60,000 in ransom in exchange for his release.

Fresh fighting between Kurdish militiamen and Syrian rebels erupted on Tuesday in the northern Syria town of Ras al-Ain, where dozens have died since the new front in Syria's complex civil war opened last week.

Elsewhere in northern Syria, several rebel battalions went on the offensive Tuesday and attacked the Sheikh Suleiman air defense battalion west of Aleppo city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The new Syrian National Coalition, announced less than two weeks ago amid much fanfare in the Qatari capital Doha, suffered its first major setback on Monday as Islamist rebel groups refused to endorse it.

Already recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people by the Gulf states, Turkey and France, the group was snubbed by Islamist groups including the two most important, the Al-Nusra Front and Liwa al-Tawhid.

Syrian rebels announced on Tuesday the creation of a security service to "defend the Syrian revolution" in a country that has been awash with feared intelligence agencies for the past five decades.

Its objective is "to be a powerful security shield to protect the sons of the revolution from attacks, arrests and killings," and to hunt down members of the opposition who have committed abuses, according to a video statement by the rebels.

Britain on Tuesday recognized Syria's newly formed opposition coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people, becoming the latest Western country to give its backing to the group.

Foreign Secretary William Hague told parliament he took the decision after he met coalition leaders in London on Friday and they assured him that they have backing inside Syria and would respect human rights.