Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stressed on Thursday the political significance of Sunday’s Koura by-election, urging voters to “listen to their conscience.”

He said before an LF delegation: “We are waging the battle to win it due to its political and humanitarian importance.”

A top Syrian military official who defected last week, General Manaf Tlass, has been in contact with the country's opposition, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday,

"I know that there is some closeness between the opposition and this general... contacts have been made," Fabius told journalists, without confirming that Tlass was in Paris as believed.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan leaves for Russia next Wednesday to discuss the developments in Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his office announced Thursday.

"Significant regional and international developments led by Syria are on the table to be discussed thoroughly," during Erdogan's visit, the written statement said.

Syrian regime forces on Thursday violently shelled the village of Treimsa in the central province of Hama, monitors and activists said, while eight people were killed across the strife-torn country.

"Regime forces pounded the village of Treimsa in Hama, using tanks and helicopters," said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, noting that at least one person was killed there and several were injured, some critically.

Israeli aid groups are working with Western organizations to provide humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees in Turkey and Jordan, MP Ayoob Kara told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

Syrian ambassador to Iraq Nawaf Fares, who announced his defection to the opposition, is now in Qatar, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Thursday.

Human Right Watch on Thursday said Syrian regime forces appear to be using Soviet-made cluster bombs against rebel hideouts in a mountainous region of Hama province.

Two videos posted online on Tuesday appear to show unexploded sub-munitions and a bomb canister in Jabal Shahshabu, northwest of the city of Hama, said the New York-based group.

Turkey said it has found no traces of explosives on the wreckage of a fighter jet it has claimed was downed by Syria, raising new questions about the incident that inflamed cross-border tensions.

"No traces of explosives or flammable products were found on the debris recovered from the sea," a statement from Turkey's general staff said on Wednesday, adding that other material was still being examined.

Syria's ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf Fares, who announced his defection to the opposition, has been "discharged," the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

"The ministry of foreign affairs announces that Nawaf Fares has been discharged and has no relation with our embassy in Baghdad, or with the foreign ministry," it said in a statement.

The U.N. and Arab League peace envoy for Syria, Kofi Annan, said on Wednesday the U.N. Security Council was discussing what action it could take next to address the crisis.

"The Council is now discussing what the next steps should be and what action they can take," said the former U.N. chief. "We should hear something in the next few days."