The father of British photojournalist John Cantlie has died, a fortnight after making a impassioned appeal to Islamic State militants to release his son, the family said on Wednesday.

Paul Cantlie died on Thursday aged 80 from "complications following pneumonia", the family said in a statement.

Jordan's King Abdullah said Tuesday the world was engaged in a battle against extremism as his country takes part in U.S.-led air strikes on Islamic State jihadists in Syria.

"All countries in the world are witnessing a war between moderation and extremism, and today Islam is plagued by a civil war," Abdullah told a meeting of Jordanian lawmakers.

Turkey said Tuesday Kurdish peshmerga fighters based in Iraq have yet to cross into Syria from Turkish territory, a day after announcing it was assisting their transit to join the battle for the town of Kobane.

"The peshmerga have yet to cross from Turkey to Kobane and this issue is still being discussed," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told NTV television, without giving further details.

An elderly Syrian took part in stoning his daughter to death for alleged adultery, in a video posted on YouTube by the Islamic State group on Tuesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the execution took place in August or September in an IS-controlled rural area in the east of the central province of Hama.

British drones deployed to counter Islamic State jihadists in Iraq will also be used for surveillance over Syria, the government in London said Tuesday.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond announced last week that unmanned Reaper drones were being re-deployed from Afghanistan to the Middle East.

The army has shrunk by nearly half since Syria's conflict erupted in 2011 but experts say the remaining military force is now both more flexible and capable. 

It has transformed itself from a traditional military built on the former Soviet model into an effective counterinsurgency force.

A teenager who ran away from Australia to join jihadists in Iraq and Syria has reappeared months later in a video of the Islamic State group, vowing to "not stop fighting", reports said Tuesday.

The 17-year-old, named in local media as Abdullah Elmir but who calls himself "Abu Khaled", carried a rifle and directly addressed Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott in the video reportedly posted online, the Sydney Morning Herald said.

Hizbullah is determined not to get involved in a verbal spat with al-Mustaqbal Movement, calling on the March 14 alliance to end its “adventures” and “have the honor to join the battle against takfiris.”

“The resistances today is fully ready and equipped today,” al-Joumhouria quoted sources close to Hizbullah as saying on Tuesday.

Several drivers of refrigerated trucks transporting goods from Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley were killed and injured after they came under fire during battles between the Syrian army and rebels at the Syrian-Jordanian border.

The head of the Bekaa Farmers Gathering, Ibrahim Tarshishi, told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) on Tuesday that there were deaths and injuries among the drivers of trucks at the Nasib crossing.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has stressed that jihadists located in Syria's Qalamun region and on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal in Lebanon are not able to enter the Bekaa Valley.

“We are fully prepared” for such a scenario, Nasrallah was quoted as saying on Tuesday.