U.S. troops began arriving in Turkey on Friday to man Patriot missile batteries against threats from neighboring Syria, where the 21-month conflict between the regime and rebels has escalated.

Syrian air and ground forces were pounding insurgents dug in outside Damascus in a ferocious offensive being waged a day after a car bomb in the north of the capital killed at least 11 people, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A key figure from the ousted regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali wanted by Tunisia is currently not in Turkey and has returned to France, a diplomatic source told Agence France Presse on Friday.

Tunisia has asked Turkey to arrest and extradite Saida Agrebi under an international arrest warrant after her presence in the Turkish capital was disclosed by Tunisian media.

Turkey on Thursday condemned the publication by a French satirical magazine of a comic book biography of Islam's founder, and urged Muslims to ignore it.

"Some people see this as freedom of expression but swearing, insulting and showing disrespect for people's faith are not freedom of expression," Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag was quoted as saying by Anatolia news agency.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah rejected on Thursday a suggestion that the Lebanese-Syrian border be closed due to the state's inability to support the burden of refugees pouring in from the war-torn country.

He said during a televised speech marking 40 days after Ashura: “The border with Syria should not be shut and the refugees, regardless if they support or oppose the Syrian regime, should be hosted in Lebanon.”

A Turkish court on Thursday sentenced to prison 40 Kurds for ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the first verdict to come in a massive trial involving hundreds of suspects.

The court in Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey handed down jail terms ranging from three months to 17 years for membership in the Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK), branded by authorities as a "terrorist organization" and an urban wing of the Kurdish rebels.

Turkey signed on Thursday an agreement with the United Arab Emirates for the development of coal fields in southern Turkey to generate electricity.

The agreement between Abu Dhabi-based TAQA and Turkey's state-run power company EUAS marks the biggest Arab investment in the Turkish energy sector, a senior energy ministry official told AFP.

Turkey's former military chief Ismail Hakki Karadayi was arrested on Thursday for his alleged role in a 1997 coup that forced an Islamic-leaning government out of power, Anatolia news agency reported.

The retired general is later expected to testify before an Ankara court as part of the investigation that was launched in 2011 and led to the arrests of dozens of other military officers.

The families of the pilgrims kidnapped in Syria reportedly took the decision to suspend their actions against Turkish interests in Lebanon, said LBCI television on Wednesday.

It said that the decision was made after a delegation from the families met with Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, who requested that they suspend their escalatory measures.

A group of some 20 Syrian soldiers including a general defected from the army Tuesday and fled to Turkey, joining hundreds of other ex-troops from Syria's military, a Turkish diplomat told Agence France Presse.

"The soldiers who fled to Turkey include a general, three colonels and several other officers," the source said on condition of anonymity.

Turkey's intelligence agency has discussed the issue of disarmament with the jailed Kurdish leader in a bid to bring an end to the nearly three-decade old insurgency, a newspaper reported on Monday.

Officials from the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) held a four-hour meeting with Abdullah Ocalan on December 23 to urge outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants to lay down their arms, the Hurriyet newspaper reported.