At least 43 civilians were killed and 150 wounded in a Syrian regime air raid targeting the Islamic State group in the northeast, a monitoring group said on Wednesday, updating an earlier toll.

"The strikes hit a cattle market in the Tal Hamis area, which is controlled by IS," said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe admitted Wednesday it was a "race against time" to free two hostages snatched by Islamist militants who are demanding $200 million for their lives.

A defiant Abe said he would not bow to "terrorism" as he took charge of the crisis that Japan was thrust into with the release of a chilling video apparently showing two Japanese men kneeling in the desert of Syria or Iraq.

A missing South Korean teenager suspected of joining the Islamic State group had a twitter account, "Sunni Mujahideen," on which he tweeted his desire to enrol with the militant group, police said Wednesday.

The 18-year-old middle school dropout, identified only by his surname Kim, went missing in Turkey earlier this month, and there is speculation that he crossed into Syria.

Speaker Nabih Berri warned on Wednesday of the dangerouseness of Israel's strike on Syria's Quneitra region, saying that it committed a “strategic error.”

He said: “Through this crime, Israel placed Iran on its border.”

The West's defence of Charlie Hebdo's right to offend is testing the patience of Muslims even in moderate Indonesia and Malaysia, who fear it could fuel radical sentiment kindled by the Islamic State group.

Publicly, the issue has stirred barely a ripple in the Southeast Asian neighbours, underscoring their cultural and philosophical gap with the rest of the Muslim world, where it has triggered outrage.

A group of pro-Syrian regime hackers briefly took over the Twitter account of France's Le Monde newspaper early Wednesday, tweeting several messages including one reading "Je ne suis pas Charlie".

The tweet was a negative reference to the "Je Suis Charlie" (I am Charlie) hashtag that became a popular way of showing solidarity in the wake of this month's Islamist attack on Paris magazine Charlie Hebdo that left 12 people dead.

Washington stands side-by-side with victims of terror around the world, President Barack Obama vowed Tuesday, asking lawmakers to give him updated war powers to defeat Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria.

"We stand united with people around the world who've been targeted by terrorists --  from a school in Pakistan to the streets of Paris," Obama said in the country's annual State of the Union address.

On grainy Istanbul airport security footage, she is shown entering the country like any tourist. A week later, she is in Islamic State-controlled Syria, without ever being apprehended.

How was Hayat Boumeddiene, the fugitive partner of one of the Paris attackers, able to cross through Turkey into Syria so easily?

A British jihadist identified by police as a "trained terrorist" who is believed to have faked his own death while fighting in Syria in an attempt to return home undetected, has admitted terror charges.

Imran Khawaja, 27, admitted preparing for acts of terrorism, attending a training camp and possessing firearms in a hearing last year, but reporting restrictions were in place until Tuesday.

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc strongly condemned on Tuesday the Israeli strike against the Syrian region of Quneitra, saying that “attacks against Arab land are unacceptable regardless of their causes.”

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “Political powers in Lebanon should prioritize protecting Lebanon and its people and avoid sliding towards regional dangers.”