The Iranian Chief of General Staff Hasan Fruzabadi held Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar responsible for bloodshed in Syria in a statement published on the Revolutionary Guard’s website.

“To help the war plans of the Great Satan (USA) is not a good principal to follow for neighboring countries. If they are acting on this basis, then they should know that the next time, it will be Turkey’s and other countries turn to take the fall,” Fruzabadi said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi will pay a snap visit to Turkey late Tuesday for talks on the Syrian crisis and 48 Iranians kidnapped there, officials said.

The Iranian foreign minister wanted to visit Turkey "at his own request," which was conveyed through diplomatic channels late Monday, a Turkish diplomat told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Some 1,137 Syrians, including a defecting general, have fled to Turkey amid the escalating violence in the strife-torn Syria, the Anatolia news agency reported Tuesday.

The latest group brought the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey to nearly 50,000.

Fierce fighting rocked the heart of Syria's commercial capital Aleppo early on Tuesday as troops shelled rebel-held districts in the east of the key battleground city, a human rights group said.

The clashes came after at least 265 people were killed in violence nationwide on Monday, 182 of them civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, revising sharply upwards an earlier toll.

Iran said on Tuesday that it was holding the United States responsible for the lives of 48 of its citizens taken hostage in Syria, following an unconfirmed report by a Syrian rebel group that three of them had been killed by shelling.

The foreign ministry, which transmitted its message through the Swiss embassy in Tehran that handles U.S. interests in the absence of Iran-U.S. diplomatic relations, insisted the 48 were pilgrims, not Revolutionary Guards as the rebels claimed.

Israel has returned to Egypt the bodies of "between six and eight" gunmen involved in a deadly attack in northern Sinai who then forced their way over the Israeli border, a military spokesman said on Tuesday.

Speaking to AFP, he said that some of the bodies had been so badly torn apart by explosives that it was impossible to be sure how many there were.

The defection of Syria's prime minister shows President Bashar Assad has lost control of the country and that his people believe his days are numbered, U.S. officials said Monday.

Prime Minister Riad Hijab slipped across the border into Jordan on Sunday night and announced he was joining rebels in the highest-ranking defection of the 17-month uprising against Assad's rule.

Iran is to hold a ministerial meeting on Thursday for countries having a "realistic position" on Syria, Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said, the official news agency IRNA reported.

He said 10 countries would be participating, but did not identify them.

Egypt's army vowed Monday to "avenge" the killing of 16 troops by gunmen near the Israeli border, as President Mohammed Morsi ordered security forces to take full control of the Sinai Peninsula.

In Sunday's attack, 35 gunmen in Bedouin clothing opened fire on the troops before crossing into the Jewish state in an armored vehicle, Egyptian officials said. Israel said five gunmen were killed on its side.

Germany said Monday that the defection of Syrian prime minister Riad Hijab pointed to the rapid "erosion" of the regime of President Bashar Assad.

"The reports show how far the erosion process of the Assad regime has progressed," Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement.