An ethnic Kurd lawmaker kidnapped by Kurdish rebels has been freed on Tuesday, local security sources told Agence France Presse, confirming an earlier report by private NTV television network.

Huseyin Aygun, of the Republican People's Party (CHP) in the southeastern city of Tunceli, was abducted Sunday after rebels stopped his car on the highway.

The Turkish army on Tuesday staged a new military drill near its border with Syria, in the throes of an uprising that has led to deteriorating relations between the neighboring nations, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Turkish tanks accompanied by advanced armored personnel carriers and tactical missile-launching platforms were deployed at the Oncupinar crossing in southern Kilis province for the drill, the report said.

Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels confirmed in a statement on Monday that they were holding the lawmaker Huseyin Aygun captive and warned Turkey to abandon its rescue operation.

"The lawmaker Huseyin Aygun has been detained by our fighters," rebels said in a statement given to the pro-Kurd news agency Firatnews.

Iran has suspended until at least the end of the month visa-free entry for nationals of Turkey and eight other countries, citing its hosting of a Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit, the Mehr news agency reported Saturday.

Turkish media have highlighted the suspension, which came amid heightened tensions between Iran and Turkey over opposing stances on the conflict in Syria.

Turkey has been dealing with Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region as though it were an independent state, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in a statement released on Saturday.

Turkey is "dealing with the (Kurdistan) region as an independent state, and this is rejected by us," Maliki said in a soon-to-be broadcast interview with a Turkish television channel, according to the statement on his website.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Saturday that Syria must not become a haven for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels battling Turkey.

"We share Turkey's determination that Syria must not become a haven for PKK terrorists whether now or after the departure of the Assad regime," Clinton told a joint news conference in Istanbul with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.

Fresh sanctions slapped by the United States are meant to "expose and disrupt" links between Iran, Hizbullah movement and Syria, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday.

She said the "number one goal" of Washington and Ankara was to hasten the end of Bashar Assad's regime in Damascus and stop the bloodshed, while warning that Syria must not become a haven for Kurdish rebels battling Turkey.

More than 2,500 Syrians fled to Turkey overnight amid escalating clashes in Syria, a Turkish official told Agence France Presse on Friday.

The latest arrivals brought the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey to some 53,000, said the official from the country's Disaster and Emergency Administration.

The family members of the 11 abducted Lebanese pilgrims staged a sit-in on Friday near the Qatari embassy in Ain el-Tineh in Beirut.

Sheikh Abbas Zgheib, who has been tasked by the Higher Islamic Shiite Council to follow up the case, urged Qatar to cooperate to resolve the case of the abducted men.

The number of Syrian refugees in Turkey who have fled the escalating violence in their strife-torn homeland has reached more than 50,000, Turkish officials said Thursday.

The total number of the refugees was 50,227 as of Thursday after more than 5,000 Syrians crossed into Turkey this week, the country's Disaster and Emergency Administration said in a statement posted on its website.