Lebanese officials expressed relief on Saturday over the near return of the nine Lebanese pilgrims, who were kidnapped by rebels in Syria last year.

Speaker Nabih Berri congratulated the nine men and their relatives.

Progress in the release of the nine Lebanese pilgrims held in Syria's Aazaz region was achieved by Qatar on Wednesday, reported al-Liwaa newspaper on Saturday.

A Turkish source told the daily that Qatar crowned its negotiations with the kidnappers by paying them 150 million dollars for the release of the pilgrims who were abducted in Syria's Aleppo region in May 2012.

Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel stressed on Saturday that the case of the Lebanese pilgrims, who were kidnapped last year in Syria, has reached an end.

“We are waiting for the Turkish authorities to hand them over to us... The process will be discussed on Saturday in Ankara,” Charbel said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

Two Turkish Airlines pilots who were kidnapped in Lebanon in August are close to being released, Turkey's foreign minister said Friday.

"Very favorable developments are under way concerning the two Turkish pilots, this matter has been largely settled," Ahmet Davutoglu said on local television, adding that the men could be freed "within hours or days".

Qatari Foreign Minister Khaled al-Attiya on Friday announced that “the Qatari mediation has led to the release of the nine Lebanese” hostages who were abducted in Syria's Aazaz and Lebanese officials have confirmed his remarks.

Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera television reported the story in a breaking news ticker without elaborating any further.

Turkey denied Thursday a U.S. newspaper report claiming it had blown an Israeli spy ring working with Iranians on its soil to the authorities in Tehran, a sign of the strained ties between the once close allies.

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government had last year revealed to Iranian intelligence the identities of up to 10 Iranians who had been meeting in Turkey with Mossad handlers.

Turkey has shelled positions held by jihadist fighters in neighboring Syria for the first time, the army said, in retaliation for a mortar round that fell on Turkish territory.

"Four artillery rounds were fired on October 15 against a position near the town of Azaz held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)," an al-Qaida affiliated group, the army chief of staff said in a statement late Wednesday.

Suicide bombers killed 19 people in two attacks in northern Iraq on Thursday, while two more people died in other violence, officials said.

One suicide bomber detonated a vehicle rigged with explosives in a residential area of Al-Muwaffaqiyah, a village east of Mosul that is mainly populated by members of the Shabak minority.

George Kassab, the brother of a Lebanese cameraman who disappeared in Syria, said on Thursday that the Lebanese authorities isn't seeking to reveal the fate of Samir.

“Should we start burning tires?” George wondered in comments to Free Lebanon radio.

The EU's executive on Wednesday urged the bloc's governments to reopen stalled membership talks with Turkey despite this year's crackdown on protesters as well as open the door to Albania.

Releasing its much-awaited yearly enlargement report, the European Commission rebuked Ankara for an "uncompromising stance in the face of dissent" and "excessive force" by police against protesters.