One of the chiefs of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said on Saturday it had called all its fighters back to Turkey, after violent protests over the government's policy on Syria left dozens dead.

Cemil Bayik, one of the founders of the PKK which has waged a bloody 30-year insurgency for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey, warned that the peace process was in danger of collapse and attacks could resume after the deadly unrest.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry vehemently stressed on Saturday that his country stands by Lebanon in its war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Media reports said that Kerry lauded in a letter sent to Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil the endeavors undertaken by the Lebanese state in its war against terrorism.

The United States reported "progress" Friday in pressing Turkey to participate in the fight against the Islamic State group, noting a pledge from Ankara to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels.

The head of the U.S.-led coalition, retired general John Allen, and U.S. pointman on Iraq, Brett McGurk, completed a two-day visit in Turkey to press the NATO ally to engage militarily against the jihadist group that has taken over a wide swath of Syria and Iraq.

The relatives of soldier Abdullah Ahmed Shehade, who reportedly defected the Lebanese army and joined the ranks of al-Nusra Front, appealed for him to return to his family and the military institution.

“The military institution is the sole guarantee for the country's security,” the family said in press conference on Saturday in from the town of Mashha in the northern district of Akkar.

Kurdish fighters halted a thrust by Islamic State group jihadists towards the heart of the battleground Syrian town of Kobane Saturday, after the U.N. warned thousands of civilians risked massacre.

The pre-dawn attack came after the IS militants overran the Kurdish headquarters in the border town on Friday, sparking fears they would cut off the last escape route to neighboring Turkey.

Calm prevailed on Saturday after several rockets from Syrian territories targeted overnight the al-Kabir River, which separates Syria and Lebanon, and nearby towns.

The shelling targeted the town of Omar al-Beykat, Qashlaq and the outskirts of Hekr Jenine in the northern Akkar district, the state-run National News Agency reported on Saturday.

Gulf monarchies taking part in U.S.-led air strikes against the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria could deploy special forces on the ground but only if certain conditions are met, analysts say.

Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have joined air strikes on the IS, which has seized swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

Another Lebanese soldier has defected to al-Nusra Front, media reports said on Friday evening, only hours after the group published a video in which the soldier Mohammed Antar announced that he had "joined the jihadists."

"The soldier Abdullah Ahmed Shehadeh, who hails from the Akkar town of Mashha, has defected to al-Nusra Front," al-Jadeed TV reported, noting that he was a member of the Fifth Intervention Regiment.

The head of the main Kurdish political party in Syria on Friday called on Turkey to allow its territory to be used for passing weapons to Kurdish fighters defending the key Syrian town of Kobane.

Salih Muslim, the leader of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), told Agence France-Presse that Turkey should understand that the Kurds are not a "threat" for Ankara.

Clutching a bloodstained napkin used by her brother just before his death, a young Syrian Kurdish woman mourned for the 23-year-old killed while defending the key town of Kobane from Islamic State insurgents.

The young man was killed fighting alongside People's Protection Units (YPG) against Islamic State (IS) jihadists for control of the mainly-Kurdish Syrian town, just over the Turkish border.