Police said Saturday they had rounded up about 2,000 people in an operation to evict undocumented immigrants from central Athens, claiming that "national survival" was at stake for debt-choked Greece.

The aim of the operation was "to send them back to their countries of origin, close the borders and ensure that Athens returns to being a lawful city with a quality of life," police spokesman Christos Manouras said.

Turkey's top military council on Saturday ordered the retirement of dozens of generals and admirals who are currently being held on charges of coup plotting, the army announced on its website.

Fifty-five generals and admirals are required to retire due to a lack of vacancies in their positions and one admiral due to his age as of September 1, the army said in an online statement.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati discussed with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu the latest developments regarding the 11 kidnapped Lebanese pilgrims in Syria.

Miqati contacted Davutoglo after media reports said that several of the 11 men have escaped after the area where they were held came under severe shelling.

Defected Syrian general Manaf Tlass held talks with Turkish foreign ministry officials during a surprise visit to Ankara, a Turkish diplomat told Agence France Presse on Saturday.

Tlass, whose defection last month was hailed in the West as a major blow for Syrian President Bashar Assad, visited Ankara "at his own request" and held talks at the foreign ministry on Friday, the diplomat said.

Another Syrian brigadier general has crossed the border into Turkey to join the ranks of opposition fighters, bringing the total number of rebel generals in Turkey to 29, a diplomat said Friday.

The general was accompanied by his family, he told Agence France Presse.

Turkey's army has begun staging drills at the Syrian border following warnings that it would follow Kurdish rebels across the frontier, the Anatolia news agency reported Friday.

Turkish tanks accompanied by armored personnel carriers and surface-to-air missile defenses are deployed at the Oncupinar crossing in southeastern Kilis province for the drills, the report said, adding that they would continue periodically.

Turkey's military on Thursday staged a military drill on its southeastern border near Syria, just a day after a tank exercise in another border region, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The military tested the speed and maneuverability of the tanks, armored personnel carriers and missile launching platforms deployed in the Mursitpinar region of Sanliurfa province, along the Turkish frontier, said Anatolia.

Turkey's military on Wednesday tested its tanks' speed and maneuverability during an exercise in Turkey's southeastern border near Syria, reported the Anatolia news agency.

The exercise comes after Turkey sent a convoy of tanks, weapons and ground-to-air missile batteries to the border with Syria, strengthening its defenses there as intensified on the other side of the border.

Abbas Shoaib, one of the 11 abducted Lebanese Shiite pilgrims in Syria, has managed to escape from his captors for a few hours before being recaptured, LBCI television reported on Monday.

“On Wednesday evening, one of the relatives of the hostages received an SMS from a Syrian mobile phone number in which the sender identified himself as Abbas Shoaib,” the TV network said.

Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi will visit Turkey this week, energy ministry sources told Agence France Presse Monday, amid a Turkish cutback on its oil purchases from Iran under Western pressure.

Qasemi is expected to arrive in Ankara to hold talks with Turkish officials, the ministry source said on condition of anonymity, without elaborating on the details of the visit.