Syrian Grand Mufti Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun’s son and history professor Mohammed al-Omar were killed on Sunday by “gunfire from a group of armed terrorists,” Syria's state news agency SANA reported.

Saria Hassoun and al-Omar were attacked while traveling in the professor's car on the Aleppo-Idlib road in northwest Syria, it said, after having earlier reported that the grand mufti's son was injured and was admitted to Idleb National Hospital.

More than 20 Syrian soldiers have infiltrated 500 meters deep into Lebanese territory in the northern province of Akkar, An Nahar newspaper reported on Monday.

It quoted sources on the Lebanese-Syrian border as saying that the soldiers entered the area of Rajam Beit Khalaf and al-Kalkha in Wadi Khaled.

Syrian opposition movements meeting in Turkey said in a statement on Sunday they had formed a common front uniting all groups that oppose the regime of President Bashar Assad.

"The Syrian Council is open to all Syrians. It is an independent group personifying the sovereignty of the Syrian people in their struggle for liberty," Paris-based Burhan Ghalioun told reporters.

U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford should stop meddling in Syrian affairs if he wants to avoid more 'rotten eggs' attacks in the future, a state-run Syrian newspaper warned on Sunday.

The Al Baath newspaper, a mouthpiece of the Syrian regime, accused Ford of supporting armed anti-government groups in Syria and said his meddling will not be tolerated.

Syrian authorities said Sunday they have restored law and order to a rebellious central town after hunting down armed "terrorists" holed up inside.

State-run news agency SANA said life is back to normal in Rastan after five days of intense fighting between the military and forces opposed to President Bashar Assad.

Former Premier Omar Karami stressed on Sunday that Syrian President Bashar Assad comforted him earlier in the week that he had “turned the page of the events” in his country.

Karami, who visited Assad along with his son Minister Faisal Karami on Wednesday, told An Nahar daily that the “the story is over.”

Venezuela's firebrand President Hugo Chavez on Saturday reiterated his support for ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, calling them "brothers."

"I ask God for the life of our brother Gadhafi... No one knows where Gadhafi is, I think he went to the desert," Chavez told official television VTV.

The Syrian National Council, which is trying to unite opponents to the regime of President Bashar Assad, was holding negotiations behind closed doors in Istanbul on Saturday.

Several opposition movements are trying to reach an alliance, a member of the SNC Halit Hoca told Agence France Presse.

Speaker Nabih Berri noted on Saturday that Lebanon remains Israel’s main enemy because it is its major competitor in the region, adding that the Jewish state is seeking to fragment Lebanon.

He said during the opening of the international conference in support of the Palestinian intifada held in Iran: “The Resistance is the main deterrent power against Israel and given the current circumstances, it is a necessity to prevent Israeli exploitation of the situation in the Arab world to harm Lebanon.”

Representatives of Syria's six-month-old protest movement joined opposition parties in Turkey on Saturday to forge a united front against Bashar Assad's regime after violence claimed at least 19 more lives.

Clashes between security forces and deserters killed 11 people in a village in Hama province on Friday, while another eight died during a crackdown on protests in flashpoint Homs, human rights activists said.