Fierce fighting pitted regime loyalists against rebels backed by al-Qaida on Sunday, after insurgents launched an offensive aimed at seizing two Shiite villages in northern Syria, a monitoring group said.

Elsewhere, jihadist Islamic State group (IS) fighters shot down a government warplane over the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Some 220 Syrian migrants crammed onto a fishing boat were rescued off the northern coast of Cyprus on Sunday as the vessel hit rough seas in the Mediterranean, authorities said.

Turkish Cypriot authorities were able to rescue the passengers including a number of children in an operation lasting several hours in bad weather, local police said in a statement.

White smoke belches from the chimney of a lopsided stone house, mingling with thick fog in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge whose bucolic setting hardly fits its reputation as a jihadist hotbed.

Temur Batirashvili, a 70-year-old subsistence farmer, warms his hands over a rusty stove as he tells the story of his son, one of the most feared commanders with the Islamic State group in Syria.

A sliver of Aleppo's once famous nightlife has returned to the war-torn Syrian city, with cafes and singers catering to residents of regime-held districts, and even some heavily bombed rebel areas.

In the chic Mogambo neighborhood in the divided city's government-controlled west, Jalaa and her three friends eat ice cream at the Fayrouz cafe, their gossip interspersed with peals of laughter.

A memorial service was held Saturday for British aid volunteer Alan Henning, who was beheaded by Islamic State jihadists in Syria.

His widow Barbara told the private service at Eccles Parish Church in Manchester, northwest England, that the 47-year-old taxi driver was a "selfless and caring" man. They had a son and daughter.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul in a bid to ease strains over the Syria crisis and persuade Turkey to step up its support for the coalition against Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

The trip to Istanbul by Biden, the highest ranking U.S. official to visit Turkey since Erdogan was elected president after over a decade as prime minister, comes amid unusual tensions in the traditionally strong relationship between the two NATO allies.

Prominent political figures are expected to head in the upcoming hours to Saudi Arabia to discuss with al-Msutaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri the latest local and regional developments.

According to An Nahar newspaper published on Saturday, the talks come in light of the presidential standstill and the efforts exerted to open communication channels between al-Mustaqbal and Hizbullah,

Several foreign jihadists who joined the Islamic State in Syria but then tried to desert have faced arrest and execution at the hands of the radical group, activists said Friday

Those who have tried to flee are usually young and mostly non-Arabs who regretted joining the IS once they saw the reality on the ground, several activists told AFP via the Internet.

A blonde, blue-eyed Dutch teenager from a Catholic family who was rescued by her mother after marrying an Islamic State fighter in Syria is to appear in court Friday on terror charges.

Nineteen-year-old Aicha arrived in the Netherlands on Wednesday with her mother Monique after going to Syria in February to marry an IS fighter she saw as a Robin Hood figure.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said on Thursday that "international cooperation" was necessary to crush the Islamic State group, which is the target of a U.S.-led campaign.

"The region is going through decisive times" and the most important factor in determining the outcome is whether there is "real and sincere international cooperation" against the jihadists, Assad said.