China and its Central Asian neighbors face increased terrorism threats as their own nationals return home after fighting in Iraq and Syria, the head of a regional anti-terrorism organization said Thursday.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization's Regional Anti-Terrorism Agency is assisting authorities in those countries in monitoring militants who have traveled to terrorist hotspots, the body's director, Zhang Xinfeng, was quoted as saying by China's official Xinhua News Agency.

Two Philippines soldiers and an unknown number of guerrillas opposed to the government's peace deal with the country's largest Muslim rebel group were killed in a clash Thursday, the military said.

Al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate al-Nusra Front has said it will free 45 Fijian U.N. peacekeepers who it kidnapped after the capture of a border crossing with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

In a video released late Wednesday through its media wing, the group said it had consulted religious leaders and they had advised "that we should release these prisoners".

Two men from the northeastern border town of Arsal were set free after a three-day kidnap ordeal by gunmen from al-Masri family to press the release of soldier Ali Zeid al-Masri, who is held captive along with other soldiers and policemen by Islamist militants.

Hassan Fleiti and Abdullah al-Breidi were handed over to the head of Hizbullah's Juristic Committee, Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek, in presence of MP Ali al-Meqdad, the state-run National News Agency reported on Thursday.

Syria's opposition National Coalition welcomed a U.S. plan to tackle the jihadist Islamic State group on Wednesday, but also urged action against President Bashar Assad's regime.

In a statement, the group said it backed a U.S. plan for air strikes in Syria and training of rebel forces, but that a "stable and extremist-free region" required "degrading and ultimately removing the Assad repressive regime."

Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem considered on Thursday that the United States inwardly accepts the presence of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the region.

“They are trying to prevent it from reaching its states but they don't want it to end,” Qassem said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

Opening a new military front in the Middle East, President Barack Obama authorized U.S. airstrikes inside Syria for the first time Wednesday night, along with expanded strikes in Iraq as part of "a steady, relentless effort" to root out Islamic State extremists and their spreading reign of terror.

"We will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are," Obama declared in a prime-time address to the nation from the White House. "This is a core principle of my presidency: If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven."

Two men charged in Australia with allegedly recruiting, funding and sending jihadist fighters to Syria faced court Thursday as Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced new measures to stem terrorism financing.

Omar Succarieh, 31, and Agim Kruezi, 21, appeared in a Brisbane court after their arrests in anti-terrorism raids on Wednesday following a year-long police investigation.

Congressional Democrats were drafting legislation Wednesday that would authorize the U.S. military to equip and train moderate Syrian rebels in an effort to reverse advances by the Islamic State (IS).

Republicans have resisted the move, arguing President Barack Obama was trying to enact a "complicated policy change" without full congressional debate.

He spent eight years bending the ear of George W. Bush. On Wednesday, former vice president Dick Cheney sought to advise another U.S. leader, this time over how to contend with violent jihadists.

In a Washington speech, Cheney, an architect of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, criticized a "disengaged" President Barack Obama for his defensive posture in the face of extremist threats, including those posed by the Islamic State (IS).