The Syrian troops have advanced on many fronts over the past 24 hours, mainly in the central region, as two bishops recently kidnapped by armed men were released late Tuesday, local media said Wednesday.

The Syrian troops have made new achievements and almost recaptured all towns surrounding the central strategic city of al- Qussair, near the borders with Lebanon, after a large-scale operation, local media said.

The troops' tactic is to control all towns in the area to cut the supply lines of the rebels entrenching inside the city.

The rebels in al-Qussair have been buoyed by Salafi groups in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli. The Syrian government has recently warned that it will not waver in responding to these armed groups which are moving in an out between Syria and Lebanon.

Last week, the army unleashed a strong firepower to isolate the contested city and corner the rebels inside. The move has raised the ire of the Salafi groups in northern Lebanon, prompting some hardliner Sheikhs to declare a "general mobilization" and call for jihad in Syria against the army and the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah, who have been accused by Sunni powers of fighting alongside their ally, the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The call for jihad has spiked fears that the entire region might plunge deeper in the swamp of sectarian conflict between the Sunnis and the Alawites, who are an offshoot of Shiite Islam, to whom the ruling elite in Syria belongs.

But moderate Sheikhs in Lebanon urged the Salafi Sheikhs to "be careful" with their statements so as not to drag Lebanon into the "war" currently gaining momentum next door in Syria.

Lebanon suffered a 15-year-old civil war back in the 1980s and any small spark could revive the buried sectarian rivalries, observers believe.

Meanwhile, two Syrian bishops, who were abducted from the outskirts of the northern city of Aleppo on Monday while they were on a "humanitarian mission," were released Tuesday night, local media reported.

The Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo and Iskenderun, Bishop Paul Yazigi, and the Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo, Bishop John Ibrahim, were released Tuesday night and returned to their homes, reports said.

Earlier, the Patriarchate of Antioch and the entire East for Greek Orthodox Church and the Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East of the Syriac Orthodox expressed regret over the abductions, and urged for an end to the current ordeal in Syria, stressing that Christians in Syria are an integral part of the Syrian society.

The details surrounding their abduction and release were not immediately clear, but reports said the kidnappers were hardliner Chechens who are fighting with the rebels in northern Syria.

The kidnapping has spiked international condemnation, which is thought to have been the reason behind their release.

Syria's Ministry of Religious Endowments said "abducting the bishops is an aggression on all men of religion in Syria and the Arab and Islamic world as a whole."

In a statement carried by the state media, the ministry confirmed that those who perpetrated "this brutal act" are " Chechen mercenaries operating under the mantle of the al-Qaida- linked Nusra Front."

It stressed that those who are stirring sedition will fail, " because we are one people with our various affiliations ... and because our fraternity as Muslims and Christians over ages represents civilization at its best forms."