A Turkish soldier who went missing on the border with Syria has been brought home, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced on Twitter on Monday.

"We've brought back to the country a short time ago our officer who was abducted while on a mission against smugglers on the border with Syria," Davutoglu said.

Turkey said Monday an agreement to train and equip thousands of moderate Syrian opposition fighters would be concluded later in January after several months of talks with the United States. 

The program is a key pillar of Turkish policy on Syria which aims to simultaneously pressure not only Islamist extremists but also the Damascus regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

U.S. and coalition aircraft on Sunday targeted a crude oil pipeline and collection depots in Syria held by Islamic State jihadists, the American military said, in the latest bid to undercut the group's oil smuggling. 

Allied fighter jets and bombers carried out 14 air raids near the eastern city of Dayr-az-Zawr since Sunday morning, including six strikes on five crude oil collection points, a pipeline, armored vehicles and a shipping container, the U.S. military said in a statement.

Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat called Monday for protecting the national interests while preserving the “dignity” of the Syrian refugees in the country, urging differentiation between those who are “running away from death” and those who are “coming to organize demagogic rallies in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad.”

In his weekly column in the PSP's al-Anbaa electronic newspaper, Jumblat criticized Lebanese authorities for obligating Syrian refugees to go through “complex procedures” on border crossings “without studying the measures thoroughly.”

Kurdish fighters have seized the security and government district of Syria's Kobane from the Islamic State jihadist group and now control 80 percent of the border town, a monitoring group said Monday.

"The People's Protection Units (YPG) fighting the jihadists (IS) for nearly four months have full control of the security district," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The newly elected head of Syria's key opposition National Coalition on Monday ruled out taking part in a Russian-led bid for new talks to end the Syrian conflict.

Khaled Khoja, who was elected early on Monday to head the opposition grouping, said Moscow's proposal was impossible.

Overwhelmed by a massive influx of desperate refugees, Lebanon began imposing unprecedented visa restrictions on Syrians on Monday, including those fleeing their country's civil war.

"Today we began implementing the new entry measures and Syrians at the borders have begun presenting their documents to enter," a source at Lebanon's General Security agency told Agence France-Presse.

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed that any possible agreement between Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement would take into consideration the interest of the nation.

“The statement that we issued after the first round of talks (between the two parties) was very clear and very accurate,” local dailies on Monday quoted Berri as telling his visitors.

The man who piloted nearly 770 illegal Syrian migrants aboard the Blue Sky M cargo ship towards Italy has described how he became the "captain" of the human trafficking vessel, according to Italian media. 

Sarkas Rani, a 36-year-old Syrian was quoted Sunday by Italian daily La Repubblica as saying he was contacted in Turkey by human traffickers who had posted notices on Facebook offering clandestine passage to Europe for $5,000 for individuals, or $4,500 per person in groups of 25 or more.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday asked Australian counterpart Tony Abott to step up military assistance to aid Baghdad's fight against the Islamic State jihadist group.

Australia is part of a U.S.-led coalition carrying out air strikes against IS, which spearheaded an offensive that overrun swathes of Iraq, and has also deployed special forces to assist Iraqi troops.