One of the abducted Lebanese Shiite pilgrims in Syria on Sunday confirmed that the 11 kidnapped men are in the remote Aleppo area of Aazaz, blaming Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, without naming him, for their protracted captivity.

“We are in good health and we are in the remote Aazaz area which is liberated and not witnessing any bombardment,” abductee Ali Abbas said in a phone interview with LBCI.

Turkey said Sunday it would do everything it could to prevent "terrorist" formations near its border with Syria that would threaten its national security.

"We will not allow the formation of a terrorist structuring near our border," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Turkish television channel Kanal 7.

Panic-stricken civilians crammed inside minivans, on the back of pick-up trucks and inside cars fled on Saturday from strife-torn Syria's second city Aleppo, the word "shelling" on everyone's lips.

Crowds of tired men, scared women and children have been arriving at Atareb, about 30 kilometers west of Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub that is now a key battleground, with regime forces launching an assault on the city.

Turkey this week cranked up its already-heated rhetoric against Kurdish militants in northern Syria, saying it would not hesitate to go after PKK fighters, just as it has in northern Iraq.

Analysts warn such a move would be dangerous for Turkey and further complicate Syria's deadly conflict and the volatile regional situation.

Turkey said Friday it would not tolerate the presence of "terrorist" groups such as the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) or al-Qaida on Syrian soil near the Turkish border.

"Whether it is the PKK or al-Qaida, we will not allow a terrorist organization to set up at our borders," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Turkish television channel Kanal 24.

A British and a Dutch photographer have been freed after being held hostage eight days in Syria and are now in Turkey, the Dutch foreign ministry said Friday.

Freelance photographers John Cantlie and Jeroen Oerlemans were kidnapped in northern Syria on July 19 and released on Thursday.

An official says suspected Kurdish rebels have detonated a roadside bomb, killing two soldiers in the country's southeast.

Moustafa Toprak, the governor of Diyarbakir province, told the state-run Anadolu agency the remotely-controlled bomb was hidden in a culvert on a road in the town of Lice and was detonated as a military vehicle passed by.

Syrian lawmaker Ikhlas Badawi, who represents the city of Aleppo in the assembly that was elected in widely criticized May polls, has defected and fled to Turkey, the opposition said on Friday.

"There were contacts for some time to ensure her a safe place," Samir Nashhar, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council, told Agence France Presse.

Holed up in a Turkish safe-house, a Kurdish commander of a Syrian rebel unit makes a novel pitch for more weapons to help his men fight the regime of President Bashar Assad.

"I wish we could get some armed support from Turkey," said Ubed Muse, speaking to Agence France Presse during a break from the bloody battles in which he has led a band of 45 rebels near Aleppo, Syria's second city.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Syria of giving Kurdish rebels a free hand in its north and warned that Ankara would not hesitate to strike.

"In the north, it (President Bashar Assad's regime) has allotted five provinces to the Kurds, to the terrorist organization," Erdogan said on Turkish television Wednesday, referring to the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK).