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- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon estimates 150,000 have fled Syria
- Ban said the fighting has left 18,000 dead
- Human Rights Watch is condemning an attack by a fighter jet that left 40 dead
(CNN) -- Syria's civil war is fueling protests and violence in neighboring Lebanon, prompting a handful of Arab nations to warn its citizens to leave the country immediately.
The warnings came as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon estimated Wednesday that more than 150,000 people have fled the 18 months of fighting in Syria that has left 18,000 dead.
"The Syrian people have suffered too much, too long. We cannot go on this way," Ban said.
"The international community must feel the sense of collective responsibility on this situation. How long do we have to endure this kind of a tragedy? This is not justice and this is not acceptable."
Ban is searching for a successor to replace Kofi Annan, who resigned this month as the U.N. and Arab League joint special envoy for Syria amid what he called a lack of unity among members of the U.N. Security Council.
Russia and China, trade partners with Syria, have vetoed three Western-backed Security Council resolutions that called for President Bashar al-Assad to end the violence and step down.
Even without a resolution, Al-Assad's government has been under enormous international pressure following a brutal crackdown on a popular uprising that devolved into an armed conflict. The United States, the European Union and a number of Arab Nations have slapped its top officials, its Central Bank and oil companies with sanctions.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the organization that attempts to offer a collective voice of the world's 1.5 billion Muslims, suspended Syria's membership on Wednesday. Iran, with its strong ties to Syria, and Algeria were the sole opponents in the 57-nation body, which has a permanent delegation to the United Nations.
The OIC's move sends a message to al-Assad that its members will not accept the regime killing its people, said Ekemeleddin Ihsanoglu, the organization's secretary-general, told CNN.
Ihsanoglu called on the Security Council to approve tougher resolutions against the Syrian regime.
Even so, the fighting continued Thursday in Syria with al-Assad's forces shelling flashpoint neighborhoods in Aleppo, the country's largest city, a rebel commander told CNN.
At least 60 people were killed or wounded when shells struck near a bakery in Aleppo where people were lined up to buy bread, said Ahmad al-Zaeem, a commander in the rebel Free Syria Army.
CNN can not independently confirm reports of casualties and violence by rebel and government forces. The Syrian government has severely restricted the access of international journalists.
The regime, meanwhile, said its forces on Thursday freed three journalists -- Yara Salah, Abdallah Tabra and Houssam Imad -- being held in El Tal, north of Damascus, according to Syrian State TV. The three, who work for the pro-regime station Al Ikhbariya, were taken by rebels while covering fighting in a suburb north of Damascus, State TV said.
The claim by the government came as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group, said initial reports indicated "a number of people were killed and injured" in El Tal following heavy shelling during the raid by government forces.
The countering claims by Syrian forces and rebels followed news that a United Nations commission of inquiry found that both sides have committed war crimes in the conflict. The U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry, though, singled out the scale of the government's attacks as crimes against humanity.
Human Rights Watch on Thursday condemned the regime after a fighter jet bombed a residential neighborhood in Azaz, in northern Aleppo province, killing more than 40 people and wounding at least 100.
The New York-based rights group said an investigation showed that at least two bombs destroyed an entire block of houses in the city located near the Turkish border.
Thousands of Syrians have been crossing into Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon to escape the civil war.
Mass protests and kidnappings reported in Lebanon between Syrians loyal to the Sunni-dominated rebels and those aligned with Assad, an Alawite Muslim with strong Shiite support, have raised concern that Syria's conflict could undo the political balance that has managed to prevail since the end of Lebanon's 15-year civil war in 1990.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, called on their citizens to leave Lebanon late Wednesday, citing deteriorating security.
The latest unrest in Lebanon was triggered by the kidnapping in Damascus of a Lebanese man, Hassan Salim Meqdad, by Syrian rebels who accused him of being a Hezbollah member. The rebel Free Syrian Army distributed a "confession" by Meqdad in which he said he was one of 1,500 Hezbollah fighters operating in Syria.
In response, Meqdad's brother Hatem Meqdad told Lebanon's state news agency that his family kidnapped 26 Syrians living in Lebanon and warned that citizens of the Persian Gulf monarchies and Turkey would be next. Two of the captives were displayed for cameras, appearing beneath a black tribal banner.
Groups of youths, meanwhile, protesting the abduction of a Lebanese citizen by Syrian rebel forces burned tires and blocked the road to Beirut's international airport late Wednesday as soldiers in riot gear and armed with tear gas stood by.
The violence in Syria has been spilling over into Lebanon since May, when a group of Shiite pilgrims were kidnapped in Syria. A series of gun battles, riots and angry protests that month left at least 11 people dead that month.
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