British Prime Minister David Cameron was preparing Thursday for a key vote on joining air strikes in Iraq as police arrested nine people, including a notorious radical preacher, accused of links to Islamist extremism.

Cameron was meeting ministers after returning from the U.N. General Assembly in New York, where he announced that parliament would vote Friday on British planes joining U.S.-led strikes against the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq.

A female pilot has led United Arab Emirates air strikes that targeted Islamic State jihadists in Syria as part of the U.S.-led campaign against extremists.

Major Mariam al-Mansouri, 35, "led the squadron" of UAE fighter jets that participated in raids Tuesday against the extremists, an Emirati source familiar with the matter said.

Dutch soldiers have been told not to wear uniforms on public transport, a defense ministry spokeswoman said Thursday, after a Dutch jihadist in Syria called for attacks in the Netherlands.

"Last night (Wednesday) we advised military personnel not to travel in uniform on public transport," Marloes Visser told AFP.

A cruise liner returning from Greece was pressed into action in rough seas off Cyprus Thursday to rescue 345 people thought to be Syrian refugees whose trawler had run into trouble.

The refugees, including dozens of children, were loaded aboard the Salamis Filoxenia cruise liner and were in "good health", according to George Ppouro, the harbor master in the Cypriot port of Limassol.

Syrian government troops recaptured the key rebel-held town of Adra northeast of the capital Damascus on Thursday, a security source said.

But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said fighting was ongoing and despite army advances, the regime still did not have full control of the town.

A series of strikes in Syria overnight by a U.S.-led coalition killed 14 jihadists from the Islamic State group and five civilians, a monitoring group said on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants were killed in strikes in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, and the civilians died in raids in northeastern Hasakeh.

A terror suspect shot dead by Australian police after stabbing two officers in a frenzied knife attack may not have been acting alone, officials said Thursday, escalating concerns about the threat posed by radicalized youth.

Abdul Numan Haider, 18, was killed on Tuesday evening on the outskirts of Melbourne, a day after the Islamic State group called for Muslims to indiscriminately kill Australians.

The British prime minister said late Wednesday he will ask Parliament to approve joining international airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq.

David Cameron announced the move in his address to the U.N. General Assembly.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem has called for cooperation between Lebanon and Syria to confront the terrorist threat posed by the Islamic State group and al-Nusra Front militants.

As Safir daily on Thursday quoted al-Muallem as saying that Lebanon should not adopt a disassociation policy regarding terrorism.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, whose country has joined the U.S.-led air strikes against Islamic State group militants in Syria, said Riyadh was ready to help Lebanon if it asked for assistance in its battle against jihadists.

In remarks carried by An Nahar newspaper on Thursday, al-Faisal said: “We have helped Lebanon to buy weapons through a $1 billion donation.”