Syria's army has launched a fierce assault on rebel fighters in a bid to break their year-long siege on Aleppo's central prison, a monitor, state media and activists reported Wednesday.

The rebels and their allies from the Al-Qaida-affiliated Al-Nusra Front have been trying to overrun the jail, which remains in government control, to release political prisoners reportedly held in very poor conditions.

The General Security announced on Wednesday that Palestinians who have fled Syria to Lebanon should file their personal documents within a month.

It said that the papers should be filed at General Security stations starting Thursday.

A candidate standing against Bashar Assad in next month's Syria's presidential election says the country's conflict began because of the regime's poor economic management and a minority elite monopolizing wealth.

"Today there is a nationwide war and a foreign plot, but in the beginning, people took to the streets to demand rights. We mustn’t forget that," Hassan al-Nuri told AFP in an interview on Tuesday.

Syria's stocks of a key chemical used to produce the deadly nerve agent sarin have been destroyed, the mission overseeing the destruction of its chemical arsenal said.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons-U.N. "joint mission confirms the destruction of the entire declared Syrian stockpile of isopropanol", a statement said late on Tuesday.

Iran on Wednesday denied as "completely unfounded" a report that it is recruiting Afghan refugees to fight in Syria to help its ally battle rebels.

Citing Afghans and Western officials, the Wall Street Journal reported last week that Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards was offering Iranian residency and $500 monthly stipends to thousands of Afghans to fight Syrian rebels.

Jihadists have launched a fresh bid to take over the Syria-Iraq border area and set up a so-called Islamic state they can control, rebels, activists and a monitoring group say.

"Their name is the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Their goal is to link together the two areas (Syria, Iraq) to set up their state and then to continue spreading," said activist and citizen journalist Abdel Salam Hussein.

Russia would veto a draft United Nations Security Council calling for Syria to be hauled before the International Criminal Court, deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov said Tuesday.

"The draft resolution that is currently submitted to the Security Council for us is unacceptable and we will not support it. If it is put to a vote, we will veto it," Gatilov told the Interfax news agency.

Italy's navy on Tuesday rescued two boats packed with more than 500 migrants including 133 minors in the latest influx that has brought in more than 36,000 people so far in 2014.

A navy helicopter spotted the boats -- one towing the other following an accident -- south of Sicily on Monday.

A 31-year-old man on Tuesday became the first person to be convicted in Britain of terror offenses related to the Syria conflict.

Mashudur Choudhury, from Portsmouth on the southern English coast, traveled to Syria in October with the intention of attending a terrorist training camp, his trial heard.

Civil society on Tuesday called on Lebanese authorities to “immediately stop the deportation” of Palestinian refugees fleeing war-stricken Syria.

Eight non-governmental organizations concerned with human rights signed a petition urging Lebanese authorities to “immediately stop deporting (Palestinian refugees) to Syria,” reported the state-run National News Agency.