An indictment and arrest warrant were issued on Tuesday against fugitive Sheikh Mustafa al-Hujeiri, who is also known as Abu Taqiyeh, for belonging to al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front.

The state-run National News Agency reported that Military Investigative Judge Fadi Sawwan charged Abu Taqiyeh with belonging to the terrorist group of al-Nusra Front with the aim of carrying out terror acts.

Turkish jets have bombed Kurdish rebel targets in the southeast of the country in the first such strikes against the separatists since an increasingly fragile 2013 ceasefire, officials said Tuesday.

Air Force jets struck positions of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) late Monday in the village of Daglica, located near the border with Iraq, a security source told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity.

Iran hit back Tuesday at demands from Saudi Arabia that Tehran withdraw its "occupying" forces from Syria and insisted no country was more committed to confronting jihadists in the region.

The two regional powers have been at odds over Syria since unrest broke out in 2011, but the unusually high-profile exchange threatens to undermine a recent diplomatic push to patch up their differences.

A new video has been released by the Islamic State, claiming a Lebanese soldier from the northern Akkar district has joined the ranks of the terrorist group.

Abdul Menhem Khaled appeared in the IS video, in which he announced his defection.

The United Nations said on Monday that it has started cutting the food aid it provides to 4.2 million Syrians ravaged by war because of a shortfall in funding.

"Yes, we have already started... this month," to cut supplies to the 4.2 million Syrians inside the country who have been receiving food aid, the World Food Program's assistant executive director Elisabeth Rasmusson told Agence France Presse in an interview.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to defeat terrorist groups, saying his party would not surrender in the fight against them.

“Victory will be the ally of the mujahideen in their battle against takfiri and terrorist groups the same way it was their ally in the confrontation with the Israeli enemy,” Nasrallah told Hizbullah members during a recent visit to the eastern Bekaa Valley.

British police arrested three men on Monday in central London on suspicion of Islamist-linked "terrorism", following a series of arrests last week.

The family of British photojournalist John Cantlie on Monday urged his Islamic State jihadist captors to make contact with them.

In a statement, the hostage's sister Jessica Cantlie urged IS to "restart" dialogue, saying previous communications had broken down and new efforts to speak to the jihadists were ignored.

Syria's main opposition bloc failed to agree on a prime minister during a weekend summit in Turkey, participants said, the latest setback for a coalition long beset by internal divisions.

A member of the National Coalition who declined to be named said the biggest dispute at the Istanbul meeting centered around a split between the favored candidates of vital funders Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

U.S. and Saudi warplanes carried out eight air strikes in Syria on Sunday and Monday, mainly targeting Islamic State jihadists fighting for a key border town, the U.S. military said.

Bombers and fighter aircraft hit IS positions in seven strikes around Kobane, the scene of heavy fighting between the jihadists and Kurdish rebels near the Turkish border, U.S. Central Command said.