President Michel Suleiman condemned on Tuesday the series of kidnappings that have taken place in Lebanon in recent days, saying that the retaliatory abductions will not help ensure the release of the 11 Lebanese pilgrims.

He demanded that the judicial authorities “take immediate actions” and issue arrest warrants against the perpetrators, who have kidnapped Syrian and Turkish nationals in Lebanon.

The opposition Syrian National Council on Tuesday accused the Lebanese authorities of failing to act over a wave of kidnappings and arrests of Syrians in Lebanon and accused some political parties of complicity.

"Syrians in Lebanon have been abducted by political parties, and subject to arbitrary arrests by security agents, without the authorities so much as lifting a finger," the SNC said, implicitly blaming Hizbullah which is closely allied with the Damascus regime.

Syrian forces pounded the northern battleground of Aleppo and two neighboring towns on Tuesday as violence claimed the lives of around 15 people including women and children, activists said.

Troops also stormed a town near Damascus, torching homes and shops, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, while another activist group reported shelling and attacks from the air by regime forces in and around the capital.

The Turkish national, Abdul-Basset Arslan, who was kidnapped in Beirut on Friday, is held by the families of the 11 Lebanese pilgrims who were seized in Syria in May.

“We obtained information that the families of the 11 abducted men kidnapped Arslan,” an official source told the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Tuesday.

Faced with a bloody conflict that has gripped their country for the past 17 months, many Syrians have opted for humor as a weapon to mock both Bashar Assad's regime and their own daily struggles.

"Dear defectors, the Syrian revolution is taking place in Syria, not in Turkey," read banners at several protests, mocking defectors who have chosen to keep their distance from the battlefield after fleeing north across the border.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati denied on Tuesday that the government didn’t fail in following up the case of the Lebanese kidnapped in Syria, stressing that resolving it is a priority.

“We are following up the issue with regional and foreign countries, in particular, with the Turkish officials to ensure the safe return of the abductees,” Miqati told As Safir newspaper.

A ministerial committee tasked with following up the case of the kidnapped Lebanese in Syria held a meeting on Tuesday without issuing a statement.

Labor Minister Salim Jreissati said after the talks that the next session will be held at Interior Minister Marwan Charbel’s office on Friday.

Al-Jadeed TV denied on Tuesday that its reporter Youmna Fawwaz was kidnapped in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo while covering the severe fighting between government troops and armed rebels.

Fawwaz headed from Syria towards the Turkish territories on Monday night, al-Jadeed said. “She contacted us at 7:00 am from Turkish territories where she is being interrogated by security authorities on how she entered Syria.”

A Japanese reporter was killed after coming under fire from up to 15 apparently pro-government troops in the conflict-wracked Syrian city of Aleppo, her colleague said Tuesday.

Veteran war reporter Mika Yamamoto died after being shot in the neck as she covered the anti-regime movement in the city, her long-time collaborator Kazutaka Sato told Japanese broadcasters.

The Syrian judiciary has issued arrest warrants for Lebanese figures "on charges of backing and financing armed groups," Sky News Arabia reported on Monday.

Earlier in the day, Damascus' First Attorney-General Mohammed Marwan al-Loji said in an interview with al-Manar television that “the Syrian judicial authorities are preparing arrest warrants for several Lebanese political figures, including lawmakers, on charges of providing all sorts of support to the armed terrorist groups in Syria, such as the trafficking of weapons and gunmen.”