Four French journalists taken hostage in Syria last year were freed on Saturday after a 10-month ordeal in the world's most dangerous country for the media.

Turkish soldiers found the four men abandoned in no-man's land on the border with Syria overnight, wearing blindfolds and with their hands bound, the Turkish news agency reported.

"We thank the Turkish authorities because they really helped us. And it's very nice to see the sky, to be able to walk and to be able to speak freely." said one of the freed journalists.

In the field, a car bomb went off in al-Salmiya in Hama province, killing and injuring dozens of civilians, according to the state-run news agency, while the Syrian Observatory mentioned that regime troops were among the killed.

Battles are ongoing in Damascus between rebels and Syrian troops backed by Hizbullah fighters in al-Maliha region and its roundabouts.

In Homs, the neighborhoods are being bombarded with rockets and explosive barrels.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. is "deeply concerned by the dire and tragic situation in Homs."

"We strongly condemn the regime's breaking of the cessation of hostilities and its brutal assault against residents of Old City, Homs," Psaki said. "The regime's bombardment and encirclement of the city is a despicable example of its starve-and-surrender battlefield approach."

On the humanitarian level, in an interview with Vatican Radio in French, Syrian nun named Sister Raghida, who lives in France, said that jihadists crucified Christians in Maaloula for not paying ransom or rejecting to convert to Islam.