The U.S. military said Friday the training of moderate Syrian rebels will likely begin within four to six weeks in Turkey after the two NATO allies clinched an agreement last week.

Potential recruits still needed to be vetted for the training sessions, which will take place in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as Turkey, Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told a news conference.

Concerned about a growing number of Canadian youths traveling overseas to join jihadists, and lacking an immediate alternative, political leaders have asked parents to keep a more watchful eye on their children for signs of extremism.

"These situations are disastrous," Quebec premier Philippe Couillard said Friday, a day after Canadians learned that six of their own, aged 18 and 19, including two young women, had left for Syria via Turkey mid-January.

The United States and Turkey will begin training and equipping thousands of moderate Syrian rebel forces on Sunday as part of a deal the two NATO allies signed last week, an official said.

"I can say that the train-and-equip (program) will begin as of March 1," Tanju Bilgic, spokesman for the Turkish foreign ministry, was quoted as saying by the state-run Anatolia news agency.

Turkish police on Friday arrested a man who threatened to set off a bomb outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul, local media reported.

The suspect was not carrying any explosives, according to initial reports, the private Dogan news agency said.

Turkey does not place a high priority on fighting Islamic State jihadists and as a result foreign fighters are able to travel through the country into Syria, U.S. intelligence chief James Clapper said Thursday.

When asked, Clapper told senators he wasn't optimistic Turkey would take a more active role in the war against the IS group.

Turkish authorities on Thursday detained a former head of national police intelligence on accusations of negligence over the 2007 murder of an ethnic Armenian journalist that shocked the country.

Ramazan Akyurek was detained by counter-terrorism police in Ankara as part of an investigation into suspected negligence by former police officials in the murder of Hrant Dink, the official Anatolia news agency reported.

A Taliban suicide attack targeting a Turkish diplomatic vehicle belonging to the NATO mission killed two people in Kabul Thursday, highlighting the fragile security situation as the Afghan government presses for talks with the militants.

The blast came shortly after 8:00 am (0330 GMT), not far from the Iranian embassy. The victims were a Turkish soldier and an Afghan passerby.

Security forces are pursuing a Lebanese Christian who is allegedly affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), fearing that he might be used to carry out a dangerous terrorist act in Lebanon.

According to As Safir newspaper published on Thursday, security forces called the 28-year-old outlaw “Jack”.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday mocked men who wear skirts, in an apparent jibe at activists who wore female clothes at the weekend in a protest supporting women's rights.

"They call themselves 'men'. What kind of men are they? Men wear trousers, why are you wearing skirts?" he said at a televised speech at his presidential palace in Ankara.

A former Miss Turkey beauty queen faces up to 4.5 years in prison on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the latest in a growing number of such cases, reports said Wednesday.

Turkish prosecutors said an investigation had been launched against model Merve Buyuksarac after Erdogan's lawyer lodged a complaint in November 2014 against a satirical poem taken from a magazine and posted on her Instagram site, state news agency Anatolia reported.