A short-range ballistic missile was fired inside Syria on Wednesday following similar launches last week, a NATO official said Thursday.

"We detected the launch of an unguided, short-range ballistic missile inside Syria yesterday. This follows similar launches on 2 and 3 January," the official said.

A prisoner swap of 48 Iranians held hostage by Syrian rebels in exchange for more than 2,000 people detained by Damascus "exposes the extent of the Syrian regime's dependence on Tehran," a main opposition group said on Thursday.

"The Syrian regime is so shameless that it is the only regime in the world that exchanges its own citizens' freedom for the freedom of citizens of foreign states," said the Syrian National Council.

Two abandoned patients fled a bombed-out mental hospital in Syria's northern city of Aleppo this week and were killed by snipers, a watchdog said, highlighting the horror of a conflict which the U.N. says has killed 60,000 people.

The men were gunned down by sniper fire on Wednesday in the embattled city where fighting has been at a grinding stalemate for months, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel vowed on Thursday to negotiate the release of the kidnapped Lebanese pilgrims in Syria, reported Future television.

He made his pledge during a meeting he held with the families of the pilgrims, saying that he will head to Doha, Qatar in order to carry out the negotiations.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak met Wednesday for a meeting that underscored a "strong US commitment to Israel's security," the Pentagon said.

U.S. Defense Department spokesman George Little said in a statement that the two men "discussed a range of issues, and expressed their commitment to ensuring continued cooperation on many important regional issues -- particularly Syria, Iran, and Gaza."

Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Wednesday ahead of U.S.-Russia talks on Syria that President Bashar Assad's new plan for his embattled country is "more sectarian, more one-sided" than previous initiatives.

He spoke as the first major prisoner swap in the 21-month conflict took place, with rebels freeing 48 Iranians in exchange for more than 2,000 regime detainees in a drawn-out deal with Damascus reportedly brokered by Turkey, Qatar and Iran.

Syrian ministers have taken on specific tasks for implementing President Bashar Assad's plan to end the country's raging civil war, state news agency SANA said on Wednesday.

The plan, announced by Assad on Sunday, is being rolled out by the government despite it being rejected by opposition groups within and without the violence-wracked country.

Forty-eight Iranians held hostage by Syrian rebels for five months arrived in a Damascus hotel on Wednesday after being freed in a prisoner swap for more than 2,000 regime prisoners.

The Iranians, described by Tehran as "pilgrims" by Tehran and by the rebels as captured Revolutionary Guards members supporting Syrian forces, looked visibly exhausted, with some weeping, an Agence France Presse correspondent reported.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati urged on Wednesday the judiciary to swiftly issue the indictment in the case of former Minister Michel Samaha, who is accused along with two Syrian officials of forming a criminal gang aimed at carrying out attacks in Lebanon at Syria's behest.

General Prosecutor Judge Hatem Madi briefed Miqati on the jurisdiction work concerning several cases during a meeting at the Grand Serail.

Jihadist fighters seized on Wednesday parts of a large military airport in northwestern Syria after a weeks-long siege, said a monitoring group.

"Troops clashed with al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham fighters inside the Taftanaz military airport (in Idlib), after rebels broke in and seized large swathes of its grounds," said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.