The United States said Monday the battle for control of the Syrian town of Kobane was continuing, despite claims by Kurdish leaders that their forces have recaptured the area from Islamic State jihadists.

Kurdish forces, backed up by U.S.-led coalition air strikes, had made progress in recent fighting but "Kobane remains contested," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

A radical Muslim leader pleaded not guilty in a Bosnian court Monday to charges of inciting terrorism for having encouraged his followers to fight alongside jihadists in Syria and Iraq.

The radical cleric, Husein Bosnic, was arrested last year and charged with urging followers to leave for Syria and Iraq to fight with Islamic militants when he preached in several Bosnian towns in 2013 and 2014.

Syrian opposition figures met in Moscow on Monday as part of a new Russia-coordinated bid to wind down the war in Syria, although there was little hope of a breakthrough.

The main opposition group, the exiled National Coalition, has boycotted the talks while Syrian President Bashar Assad cast doubt on the Moscow initiative bearing any fruit.

Kurdish militia drove the Islamic State group from the Syrian town of Kobane and raised their flags on Monday, dealing the jihadists a heavy blow after months of heavy fighting.

Across the border in Iraq, meanwhile, a top army officer announced troops had "liberated" Diyala province from IS jihadists.

The army command said on Monday that the military has arrested a Syrian in Beirut's southern suburbs on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization.

Mohammed Ibrahim Youssef was apprehended in Haret Hreik at dawn Monday, said the army in a communique.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said U.S. plans to train vetted rebels to fight the Islamic State group were "illusory" as they would eventually defect to the jihadists, in an interview published Monday.

The Syrian leader also questioned talks to be held in Moscow this week, telling Foreign Affairs magazine that his government would attend but was not convinced the opposition figures taking part represented Syrians on the ground.

Syrian opposition figures on Monday began four days of talks on how to end the near four-year conflict, with members of President Bashar Assad's regime set to join them but the main exiled opposition alliance boycotting the event.

The closed-door talks opened as planned at 11 am Moscow time (0800 GMT), a Russian diplomatic source told RIA Novosti. The talks are set to run until Thursday.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea has said that Hizbullah and the extremist Islamic State group are enemies but have closely related features of one idea.

“Hizbullah is the IS's enemy and they are fighting each other,” Geagea told UAE's Alroeya newspaper in an interview published on Monday.

The international community is failing in its duty to protect civilians affected by the conflict in Iraq and Syria, US actress Angelina Jolie said Sunday in northern Iraq.

In her capacity as special envoy for the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR), the Hollywood star visited Syrian refugees and displaced Iraqis near Dohuk, in the autonomous region of Kurdistan.

Five civilians and two soldiers were killed and dozens of people wounded when rebels fired a barrage of rockets and mortar rounds Sunday at central Damascus, a monitoring group said.

The rebel attack came two days after they threatened to retaliate for deadly air raids by the Syrian regime against an opposition-held area on the edge of the capital.