Heavily armed Kurdish peshmerga fighters set off from their base in northern Iraq Tuesday to support militia forces defending the Syrian border town of Kobane from the Islamic State group.

Military trucks loaded with weapons departed from the base northeast of the Iraqi Kurdish regional capital Arbil bound for the besieged town on the Turkish frontier, an AFP correspondent said.

Turkey wants the anti-Damascus Free Syrian Army (FSA) to control the Syrian border town of Kobane if Islamist jihadists are defeated, and not the forces of separatist Kurds or President Bashar Assad, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

In an interview with the BBC broadcast on Tuesday, Davutoglu called for an "integrated strategy" with the United States to equip and train the FSA and oust Assad from power.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed on Tuesday that Christians should help Muslims to confront the assault against Islam by terrorists.

“The developments in the Middle East are not related to ethics or humanity in any way,” al-Rahi said during his visit to the state of Victoria in Australia.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam hoped on Tuesday that the international community is aware of Lebanon's huge financial needs to confront the burden of refugees.

“The refugees are affecting our economy and security ... We call for more funding to confront the repercussions of the refugee crisis,” Salam said at the opening of the Berlin conference on Syrian refugees, which was attended by Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil and Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas.

Speaker Nabih Berri hailed the Lebanese army for "eradicating" terrorist groups in the northern city of Tripoli and nearby areas without making any compromises.

“The Lebanese army is one of the strongest militaries in the region but lacks arms and ammunition,” Berri told As Safir daily in remarks published on Tuesday.

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri condemned on Tuesday calls to defect from the Lebanese army and the incitement of Sunnis to join terrorist groups, and reiterated that the nation would enjoy security only if Hizbullah withdrew from Syria.

“All calls to defect from the army and incite Sunni men in particular to … join armed organizations in Lebanon and abroad are condemned and rejected,” Hariri said in a lengthy statement issued by his press office.

The army command received information that terrorist are plotting to attack Ashoura gatherings through explosive-rigged cars and female suicide bombers.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Tuesday, the army detained Khadija Hmeid, one of the female bombers who were trained to drive booby-trapped cars and crash Ashoura gatherings.

The Pentagon has revised its estimate of the cost of the U.S. air war in Iraq and Syria, saying the price tag for the campaign against the Islamic State group comes to about $8.3 million a day.

Since air strikes began on August 8, the campaign -- which has involved about 6,600 sorties by U.S. and allied aircraft -- has cost $580 million, said Pentagon spokesman Commander Bill Urban.

The Islamic State jihadist group released a video Monday showing a British hostage apparently in Kobane, in a bid to disprove that it was losing the battle for the disputed Syrian border town.

The video, the latest in a series featuring 43-year-old kidnapped reporter John Cantlie, shows him in a war-damaged town, talking to the camera and rejecting U.S. claims that the "mujahedeen" are in retreat.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam stated on Monday that the unrest in the northern city of Tripoli “is nearing its end,” stressing the need for a national stance towards eliminating the terrorists.

He said: “The order to take decisive action against the terrorists has been given.”