Islamists in Syria's northwestern city of Idlib should set aside their differences and rule the city together, the head of al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate said in an audio message published Wednesday.

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, chief of Syria's al-Nusra Front, said his group does not "want to monopolize rule over Idlib city," which was recently taken over by an Islamist coalition. 

Turkey has arrested nine British nationals on the Syrian border as they sought to illegally cross over from Turkey, the army said on Thursday.

"Nine people of British nationality were arrested on the border trying to enter Syria from Turkey," the army said in a statement on its website, adding that the arrests took place in the Hatay region of southern Turkey.

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr on Wednesday charged 12 people with “luring” and “abducting” defected Syrian soldiers and handing them to their country's regime.

“Saqr filed a lawsuit against 12 people – including 3 detainees of whom one is a serviceman – on charges of luring soldiers defected from the Syrian regime, kidnapping them and handing them to Syrian authorities in return for personal benefits,” state-run National News Agency said.

A Spanish court on Wednesday remanded in custody a Moroccan woman suspected of trying to send her twin 16-year-old sons to Syria to become jihadi fighters, a year after her other son was killed there.

Spain's National Court, which is charged with terrorism cases, ordered that the woman be held in jail for the suspected crime of cooperation with a terrorist organization.

Moroccan authorities said Wednesday they dismantled a cell in the city of Fez that was recruiting fighters for the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

The interior ministry said the head of the cell maintained strong ties with IS leadership and sent Moroccans to training camps in the two countries, where they received intensive training in weapons handling.

Wary of a rapprochement between Washington and arch-rival Iran, Saudi Arabia has taken matters into its own hands by leading an air war against Shiite rebels in Yemen, experts say.

The Huthi rebels, who Tehran denies arming, were close to seizing most of Yemen when Saudi Arabia sent warplanes into its southern neighbor, with which it shares a 1,800 kilometer (1,100 mile) border.

Jordan on Wednesday closed its main border crossing with Syria amid fierce clashes between rebels and pro-regime forces for control of the post.

"The 'Jaber' border post has been temporarily closed to travelers and goods," Interior Minister Hussein Majali told AFP.

Syria's government, presiding over an economy ravaged by war and facing dwindling foreign currency reserves, is taking new measures to slash imports and prop up exports.

Importers require government licences that allow them to request a favorable exchange rate at the Syrian central bank.

Gunmen from the Ezzeddine family appeared on the streets of the northeastern border town of Arsal in the wake of a series of kidnappings in the area over the past few days, reported the National News Agency on Wednesday.

It said that gunmen abducted three Syrian youths from the Syrian town of Qara in response to the kidnapping of Hussein Seifeddine on Tuesday.

The U.S. Treasury placed a senior Syrian central banker and three alleged front companies for an arms agency on its sanctions blacklist Tuesday, stepping up pressure on the Assad government.

The Treasury said Batoul Rida, an official at the Central Bank of Syria since 2010, has helped organize cash transfers with the already-sanctioned Tempbank.