Security footage appears to show three British girls, believed to be heading for Syria to join Islamic State (IS) militants, waiting at a bus station in Istanbul before traveling to a Turkish town on the Syrian border, media reported Sunday. 

Close friends Kadiza Sultana, 16, and 15-year-olds Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, boarded a flight from London to Istanbul on February 17. 

Syrian rebel forces in Aleppo on Sunday rejected U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura's plan for a freeze in fighting in the divided northern city, dealing a blow to his peace efforts.

"We refuse to meet with Mr. Staffan de Mistura if it is not on the basis of a comprehensive solution to Syria's drama through the exit of (President) Bashar Assad and his chief of staff, and the prosecution of war criminals," a newly-formed Aleppo revolutionary commission said.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq revealed that he had ordered security agencies to facilitate the entry of Assyrian refugees from Syria, who are fleeing the persecution of Islamic State group extremists, reported the daily al-Mustaqbal Sunday.

He told the daily that he had taken the decision following consultations with Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Rashid Derbas.

U.N. peace envoy Staffan de Mistura hopes to finalise a deal to freeze fighting in war-ravaged second city Aleppo during talks Saturday with the Syrian government, an official said.

De Mistura is due in Damascus in the afternoon and "hopes to set in motion as soon as possible his project" to halt fighting in Aleppo for six weeks, said a member of his delegation who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Two Orthodox bishops kidnapped in Syria in April 2013 are doing well and in a safe area away from the intense clashes between the Islamic State group, rebels and the forces of President Bashar Assad's regime.

According to a report published in al-Akhbar newspaper on Saturday, the whereabouts of the two bishops, Yohanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yaziji, remain unknown as the IS militants continuously changed their location “for reasons related to secrecy and to protect them from the surrounding fighting and shelling.”

Australia is considering joining New Zealand in a training mission in Iraq to help counter the Islamic State (IS) militant group, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Saturday.

New Zealand announced Tuesday it will send troops to Iraq on a "behind-the-wire" non-combat mission to boost the local military's ability to fight the jihadists.

Faced with a seemingly unending bloody conflict in Syria and the rise of the Islamic State group, is President Bashar Assad the lesser of the country's evils and should the West re-engage with him?

While world powers such as the United States, France and Britain refuse to have anything to do with a leader the French prime minister described as a "butcher", the question is increasingly being raised within these countries.

The U.S. military said Friday the training of moderate Syrian rebels will likely begin within four to six weeks in Turkey after the two NATO allies clinched an agreement last week.

Potential recruits still needed to be vetted for the training sessions, which will take place in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as Turkey, Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told a news conference.

Concerned about a growing number of Canadian youths traveling overseas to join jihadists, and lacking an immediate alternative, political leaders have asked parents to keep a more watchful eye on their children for signs of extremism.

"These situations are disastrous," Quebec premier Philippe Couillard said Friday, a day after Canadians learned that six of their own, aged 18 and 19, including two young women, had left for Syria via Turkey mid-January.

Syria has decided to expel three U.N. aid workers, in a new setback for international agencies struggling to bring desperately-needed relief to civilians in the war-torn country.

Two of the workers are from the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the third is an employee of the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Friday.