Around 700 migrants aboard a freighter that had been drifting in the Aegean Sea for two days began disembarking on the Greek island of Crete on Thursday, local officials said.

The migrants from Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, include "a lot of women and children", said Theodosis Kalantzakis, the mayor of Ierapetra.

Syrian troops have killed 50 "terrorists" in an ambush in the largely rebel-controlled countryside east of Damascus, according to state media.

"An army unit killed 50 terrorists in an ambush while they tried to flee Mediya village," SANA news agency reported late Wednesday, using the standard official term for the rebels.

Syrian detainee Imad Jomaa, a member of the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Nusra Front, whose arrest sparked the Arsal unrest in August, reportedly expressed doubt that negotiations with the jihadists entrenched on the outskirts of the town on the porous Syrian-Lebanese border would lead to his release.

Jomaa, according to As Safir newspaper published on Thursday, is demanding to be referred to the judiciary to stand trial as he believes that the negotiations are “a waste of time.”

The United States said Wednesday it was "horrified" by Syrian regime air strikes in the stronghold Raqa that killed at least 95 people, slamming the government for its "continued slaughter." 

The bombing Tuesday was the deadliest by President Bashar Assad's air force since Islamic State jihadists seized the city last year and declared it their capital.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri noted Wednesday that Riyadh's call for blacklisting Hizbullah as a “terrorist” organization must not have any impact on the domestic Lebanese affairs, voicing support for any dialogue between Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement.

“We back any dialogue that gathers the Lebanese,” Asiri said in an interview with NBN television, revealing that during talks in Ain al-Tineh he sensed insistence by Speaker Nabih Berri to secure the success of dialogue between the two parties.

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday hosted Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in his first meeting with a top envoy from Damascus since the old Moscow ally plunged into civil war more than three years ago.

But the high-stakes discussion was held behind closed doors and neither side disclosed its details.

Al-Qaida's Syrian branch on Wednesday executed a man it accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammed, in a summary killing mirroring those by the Islamic State group, a monitoring group said.

Al-Nusra Front militants shot dead the civilian, identified as Mohammad al-Mir, in the town of Irbin, just northeast of the capital Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Greek island of Crete was preparing on Wednesday to take in some 700 migrants aboard a freighter immobilized by engine failure, local officials said.

The Kiribati-flagged ferry Baris was being towed by a Greek navy frigate to the Cretan port of Ierapetra, and was expected to arrive on Thursday, the Greek coastguard said.

The French government said that six Mirage fighter jets would be deployed to Jordan on Thursday to assist in the fight against the Islamic State group.

Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told a weekly cabinet meeting that the deployment of the six fighters would "strengthen our presence in this theatre of operations," according to government spokesman Stephane Le Foll.

Tens of thousands of Christians have fled Syria's war-wracked second city Aleppo but many others are determined to hold out despite their dread of Islamic State jihadists.

Christians of various denominations make up around 10 percent of Syria's population and Aleppo alone was home to some 250,000 before the civil war reached the city in 2012.