The families of the 11 kidnapped Lebanese pilgrims blocked the airport road on Thursday in protest against the failure to achieve any progress in their release.

They have since reopened the road, threatening however that they may escalate their actions should their protest be unheeded.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Iran Thursday to be ready to take "concrete steps" on its disputed nuclear program ahead of a Moscow meeting between Tehran and world powers.

Iran and the so-called P5+1 group -- the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany -- meet on June 18-19 in the Russian capital to discuss Iran's nuclear program which the West fears aims to build the bomb.

Syrian authorities thwarted an attempt by an “armed terrorist group” to infiltrate Syria from northern Lebanon, Syrian Arab News Agency, SANA, reported Thursday.

It quoted a source in Reef Tall Kalakh as saying that one member of the group was injured while the rest escaped back to Lebanon during a clash with “concerned authorities.”

Al-Qaida is still a serious and imminent threat as it is spreading geographically, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday.

"The core of al-Qaida that carried out the 9/11 attacks may be on the path to defeat, but the threat has spread, becoming more geographically diverse," Clinton said ahead of a counterterrorism meeting.

A suspected Kurdish rebel was killed overnight in Istanbul when the bomb he was carrying detonated before he had a chance to plant it, the city's governor said Wednesday.

The remains of the 23-year-old suspect were found in bushes in the popular Esenyurt district, police said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet her British, French, Turkish and some Arab counterparts Wednesday to "discuss the situation in Syria," a Turkish diplomatic source said.

Britain's foreign minister, William Hague, France's Laurent Fabius, Turkey's Ahmet Davutoglu and several Arab ministers will be at the informal evening meeting in Istanbul on the 15-month-old crisis, the source said.

The Higher Islamic Shiite Council urged on Thursday the families of 11 pilgrims kidnapped in Syria to exercise self-restraint and remain calm.

Following a meeting held between the deputy head of the Council, Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan, and the families of the abductees, a statement urged Turkey to intensify its efforts to release the men.

Ministers from some 30 countries, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, will meet in Turkey on Thursday at an anti-terror forum overshadowed by Syria's crisis and Iran's nuclear threat.

The meeting comes as Western powers are pushing for increased pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stop his regime's assault against the population.

More than 2,000 Syrians fled to Turkey in the past three days, officials said Tuesday, pointing to an increase in refugee arrivals which had dipped following a peace plan in April.

The number of Syrian refugees in camps set up in southeastern Turkey reached 26,747 on Tuesday, up from 24,433 on Saturday, according to figures announced by Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD).

Syria's government declared on Tuesday that the ambassadors and staff of several Western countries as well as Turkey were personae non gratae.

"Some states recently informed heads of our diplomatic missions and embassy staff that they are unwelcome," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding Syria was now designating the ambassadors of the United States, Britain, France and Turkey, among others, as personae non gratae.