Turkey on Tuesday said it has never allowed al-Qaida-linked Syria rebels to use its territory to launch attacks against the Damascus regime, after President Bashar Assad accused Ankara of turning a blind eye to terrorists.

"Turkey has never allowed al-Qaida-linked groups, it has never allowed them to cross its borders," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said at a news conference in Ankara.

Turkey on Tuesday lifted a decades-old ban on headscarves in the civil service as part of a package of reforms by the Islamic-rooted government meant to improve democracy.

The measure was hailed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose wife wears a headscarf, as a "step toward normalization" and came into effect after it was published in the Official Gazette.

The nine Lebanese pilgrims that were being held in Syria's Aazaz region will likely be released within the upcoming hours, reported al-Akhbar newspaper on Tuesday.

It revealed that they were moved to safe location at the Syrian-Turkish border, which lies under Turkey's security, ahead of their imminent release.

Turkey denied Sunday that its forces were involved in an assault in Somalia by U.S. commandos against a suspected military leader of the Islamist Shebab group.

"We deny these allegations completely," a foreign ministry spokesman told AFP.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hinted he would be willing to run for president in next year's elections, a move analysts have been expecting of the conservative premier who is approaching his term limit.

"For the moment, nothing is certain," Erdogan said in a television interview late on Thursday, when asked whether he would run in the August 2014 poll, the first in which the head of state will be elected by voters instead of parliament.

Syrian President Bashar Assad warned Turkey it will "pay dearly" for supporting rebels fighting to overthrow his regime, in an interview broadcast Friday on Turkish television.

"In the near future these terrorists will have an impact on Turkey. And Turkey will pay very dearly for its contribution," Assad told the opposition station Halk TV.

Hundreds of jihadist fighters from the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have advanced in northern Syria towards a border post with Turkey, an NGO said Wednesday.

"Hundreds of ISIL fighters advanced overnight towards Bab al-Salameh, which is closed from the Turkish side," said Rami Abdul Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Turkish authorities committed "gross human rights violations" during anti-government protests that rocked the country in June, Amnesty International said in a report released on Wednesday.

"The attempt to smash the Gezi Park protest movement involved a string of human rights violations on a huge scale," Andrew Gardner, the London-based watchdog's Turkey expert, said in a statement.

Turkey on Wednesday defended its decision to acquire its first long-range anti-missile system from China, in spite of protests from its ally Washington.

"The Chinese gave us the best price," Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz told Vatan newspaper, explaining that the system's Chinese manufacturer had agreed to a co-production deal with Turkey.

Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil lashed out on Wednesday at Israel, considering that it can't prevent Lebanon from protecting its oil reserves as he accused it of digging a well 5 kilometers from Lebanese offshore reserves.

“We will treat Israel as it is treating us. The Jewish state can't oblige us to commit to stances that it fails to keep,” Bassil said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.