The Lebanese government and the Qatari capital Doha are exerting efforts with some factions of the armed Syrian opposition to release some Lebanese who have gone missing in the neighboring country, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

A widely-informed security source told the daily that the contacts will likely result in the release of around seven Lebanese held in Syria after it emerged that they may still be alive.

An American fighting for a hardline Islamist group carried out a deadly suicide bombing, U.S. officials said Friday, in the first such case in the war.

The confirmation came amid growing fears over the flood of foreigners into Syria, with no end in sight in the three-year war that has already left 162,000 people dead.

The United States confirmed Friday that it believes a U.S. citizen carried out a suicide bombing within Syria, as had been claimed by hardline Islamist rebels.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki did not provide any details about the suspect, who had been identified in a New York Times report as a man in his 20s from Florida and of Middle Eastern descent.

Pope Francis warned Friday that the millions of people affected by the Syria crisis risk being forgotten because of the "globalization of indifference" toward the conflict.

The international community risks "forgetting the daily victims, the unspeakable suffering, the thousands of refugees, including the elderly and children, who suffer and sometimes die from hunger and disease caused by the war," he said.

Syria's most extremist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), have kidnapped nearly 200 Kurdish civilians from the Aleppo area, a monitor said on Friday.

"Fighters from ISIL on Thursday kidnapped at least 193 Kurdish civilians aged from 17 to 70 years from the village of Qabasin in Aleppo province," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Iran said Friday that next week's presidential election in Syria, branded a farce by Western governments, will boost the legitimacy of its ally Bashar Assad.

"God willing, the elections in Syria will be carried out without a hitch," said Ali Akbar Velayati, the senior foreign policy adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The trial of former Minister Michel Samaha was once again postponed to later this year after authorities failed to summon his associate Syrian security chief General Ali Mamlouk.

Samaha's trial had previously been postponed from June to December last year. It was then delayed to May 30 for the same reasons.

Barrel bombings and other Syrian government air raids on rebel districts of Aleppo and surrounding areas have killed 1,963 civilians since January, including 567 children, a monitoring group said Friday.

A total of 283 women were also among those confirmed killed in the air strikes, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which relies on a network of medics and activists on the ground for its reports.

Visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende kicked off a series of meetings in Beirut on Friday with senior Lebanese officials, hailing the security improvement.

“We are committed to cooperating with Lebanon,” the FM said in a press conference with his Lebanese counterpart Jebran Bassil.

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil on Thursday stressed the need to “take the necessary measures” to address the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon and prevent the “collapse” of the country, noting that “Lebanon cannot await the political solution in Syria.”

“We explained the Lebanese strategy in combating international terrorism, especially in light of the Syrian spillover,” Bassil said after talks in Beirut with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier.