Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on Thursday held talks with China's special envoy for the Middle East who reaffirmed his country's opposition to foreign interference in Syria, the official Syrian news agency SANA said.

Muallem and envoy Wu Sike met in Damascus for talks during which they spoke of "the relations of solid friendship" between their countries.

South African mercenaries who allegedly took part in Moammar Gadhafi’s failed escape bid are still taking care of his son Seif al-Islam, the Beeld newspaper said Thursday.

The South Africans were hired by a company with close ties to Gadhafi, training his presidential guard and handling some of his offshore financial dealings, the Afrikaans-language paper said.

Syrian security forces and snipers Thursday killed three people, including a teenager, in the central region of Homs and the southern province of Daraa, two hotbeds of dissent, activists said.

"A 15-year-old minor was killed and three people were wounded by security forces during raids," in the town of Dael, near the southern city of Daraa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement.

A U.S.-Israeli citizen accused of spying in Egypt arrived in Tel Aviv on Thursday, Israeli media said, freed under a prisoner exchange deal that saw Israel release 25 Egyptian detainees.

Israeli television and radio reported that Ilan Grapel had touched down at Israel's Ben Gurion airport at around 1630 GMT, arriving on a private plane from Cairo, accompanied by Israeli officials.

Turkey's defense minister said Thursday a major operation launched against Kurdish rebels in retaliation for an attack that killed 24 soldiers had ended, Anatolia news agency reported.

"Other than our normal routine struggle against terror, the operation in Kazan valley that was started after the Cukurca attack is over. But our normal struggle against terror is ongoing," Anatolia quoted Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz as saying.

Iran's foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, has confirmed an Interpol request concerning a suspect wanted over U.S. allegations of an assassination plot, but suggested the name was too common to pinpoint the individual, Iranian reports said Thursday.

"There are 150 Gholam Shakuris (in Iran). Interpol sent us a question about this name, and our investigation showed a certain Gholam Shakuri who lives in the United States and is a member of the Mujahedeen-e Khalq Organization," Salehi was quoted in Iranian media as saying in Saudi Arabia.

The United States should use covert action against Iran or even "kill" some of its top officials in retaliation for an alleged plot to kill Saudi Arabia's U.S. envoy, lawmakers heard Wednesday.

"I'm saying we put our hand around their throat right now in every interest they have," retired U.S. Army general Jack Keane told a hearing of the House of Representatives' Homeland Security Committee.

Talks between envoys of the international peacemaking Quartet and Israeli and Palestinian officials in Jerusalem ended with a pledge to introduce "comprehensive proposals" but no deal on new peace talks.

In a statement released late on Wednesday, the peacemaking group, which comprises the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia, said its envoys had met separately with both sides in a bid to kickstart long-stalled negotiations.

The Israeli air force carried out three raids early Thursday on the Gaza Strip after a rocket was launched from the Hamas-controlled territory at southern Israel, witnesses said.

The raids targeted areas east and west of Khan Yunes in the south of the Strip, and a base of Hamas's armed wing the al-Qassam Brigades was hit, they said.

U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, who was abruptly withdrawn this week because of security threats, hopes to return to Damascus before the end of November, the State Department said Wednesday.

"Let me just say he has bought his Thanksgiving turkey for his embassy staff, and he wants very much to have Thanksgiving dinner for his folks there. So that's our expectation, it will be sometime before Thanksgiving," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.