Turkish security forces arrested Monday four Syrians linked to President Bashar Assad's regime over a deadly bomb attack on the volatile border last month, the interior minister said.

"Our security forces arrested four Syrian nationals and one Turkish citizen" over the minibus bombing which killed 14 people, Muammer Guler said in televised remarks. "We proved their links with the Syrian intelligence and army."

Syria's National Coalition has for the second time in weeks postponed talks on the formation of an interim government, a senior member of the opposition grouping said Sunday, citing "deep rifts" on the issue.

The meeting was initially scheduled for last month in Istanbul but was postponed until Tuesday this week. It has now been delayed again, with a possible new date between March 18 and 20, said Samir Nashar.

Syria's opposition National Coalition meets next week in Istanbul to discuss the formation of an interim government and the selection of its head, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Tuesday's meeting will focus on "the question of a government and its chief," said Walid al-Bunni, while stressing that the discussions were not expected to lead to the designation of an opposition prime minister.

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Thursday hailed Turkish opposition to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's backing for the revolt that began in Syria nearly two years ago, in a statement seen by Agence France Presse.

The statement comes after Assad met a Turkish opposition delegation.

Osama bin Laden's son-in-law Sulaiman Abu Ghaith was seized by CIA agents and taken to the United States after Turkey deported him to Jordan this month, a Turkish newspaper reported on Thursday.

Abu Ghaith, the former spokesman of the Al-Qaida network, was seized last month at a luxury hotel in Ankara after a tip-off from CIA and was held there by the police despite a U.S. request for his extradition.

Opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad voted on Sunday to elect 29 provincial council members to run rebel-held areas in the northern province of Aleppo, organizers and participants told Agence France Presse.

"For the first time, Aleppo will have a freely elected provincial council. We hope the whole of Syria will have a free election soon," candidate Yehia Naanaa from the bombed-out town of Hreitan told AFP.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruled out on Sunday a general amnesty for Kurdish rebels amid renewed peace talks between the country's secret services and jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan.

"We are not entitled to pardon murderers. We will not interfere in such a thing," Erdogan was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) may release Turkish state officials it is holding within 10 days as part of a renewed push for peace with Turkey, the co-chair of the pro-Kurdish party said on Saturday.

"I hope the state officials held by the PKK will reach their families within a week or 10 days," Gulten Kisanak of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Cairo on Saturday for talks with the leaders of Egypt and their opposition, amid political turmoil and a crippling economic crisis.

Kerry, who arrived from Turkey, is due to hold talks with Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, as well as political parties, business leaders and civil society groups during his two-day visit.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held talks with Turkey's leaders on the Syria crisis Friday amid a row over controversial comments by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan branding Zionism a "crime against humanity."

"Obviously we disagree with that, we find it objectionable," Kerry said at a joint press conference in Ankara, referring to a speech delivered by Erdogan that likened Zionism to fascism and anti-Semitism.