A Melbourne man has been charged with attempting to leave for Iraq to fight with Kurdish forces against the Islamic State group, just weeks after another Australian was killed during a similar venture.

Jamie Williams, 28, is accused of preparing to enter a foreign country with the intention of engaging in hostile activities -- which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

The United States named a new special envoy to Syria on Monday, the third since the war began four years ago, as Washington seeks a political solution to the conflict.

Michael Ratney, an Arabic speaker who served as U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, and as a diplomat in Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco and Qatar, replaces Daniel Rubinstein.

Turkey has not asked for substantial military help from NATO in its campaign against the Islamic State group and Kurdish militants, the alliance's chief said ahead of a emergency meeting to discuss the fighting.

Jens Stoltenberg also warned Turkey that its bombing campaign could endanger the progress that has been made in recent years towards reaching a peace deal with Kurdish militants.

Kurdish fighters seized a key town in northern Syria from the Islamic State group on Monday, cutting a supply lifeline from the jihadists' de facto Syrian capital, a monitor said.

"The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) took full control of Sarrin on Monday after three weeks of intense clashes," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Two bombs hit the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria on Monday, wounding at least three people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The first blast hit a patrol of Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) and wounded three people, the Britain-based monitoring group said.

A Syrian journalist working for pro-government media and Lebanon's LBCI television was killed early on Monday as he was reporting on clashes east of Damascus, state media and a monitoring group said.

In a breaking news alert, Syrian state television reported the "death of National Defense Forces journalist Thaer al-Ajlani as he was covering the clashes in the Jobar area".

Turkey will not send ground troops into neighboring Syria where it has been bombing Islamic State positions, a campaign that could "change the balance" in the region, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted as saying on Monday.

"We will not send ground forces," Davutoglu told a group of Turkish newspaper editors according to the Hurriyet daily.

The United States and Turkey have agreed to work together to clear the Islamic State group from northern Syria, a senior U.S. official said Monday.

"The goal is to establish an ISIL-free zone and ensure greater security and stability along Turkey's border with Syria," the official told AFP, using an acronym for the jihadist group.

An Australian nurse who allegedly joined Islamic State in Syria was Monday remanded in custody on terror charges relating to carrying out guard duty and reconnaissance for the militants.

Adam Brookman, a 39-year-old father-of-five, is accused of knowingly providing support to IS between April 2010 and August 2014 to help "prepare or foster" a terrorist act.

Syrian government troops and Kurdish forces advanced Sunday against Islamic State group fighters in the northeastern city of Hasakeh, a monitor and state media said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said IS forces were now confined to just two small areas in the city.