Syrian President Bashar Assad made a rare public appearance on Friday for holiday prayers at a Damascus mosque, state media reported.

Assad attended morning prayers at the Al-Hamad mosque in northwest Damascus on Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, the SANA news agency reported.

Government and rebel-held parts of Syria's Aleppo have been without safe water for nearly three weeks because the war-torn city's only pumping station is not functioning, residents said Thursday.

The cause of the problem is disputed, with some residents saying a lack of fuel was the issue, but a monitor reporting that the opposition group controlling the facility had shut it down.

Britain will send another spy plane to fly over Iraq and Syria in what Defense Secretary Michael Fallon called a "new Battle of Britain" Thursday, as it edges towards joining U.S.-led air strikes in Syria.

Fallon announced Britain would take delivery of a new Airseeker plane next month, which would "shortly after" be deployed to carry out reconnaissance of suspected Islamic State (IS) group targets.

Former Minister Michel Samaha on Thursday sought to withdraw his testimony to the Internal Security Forces on the terrorist plot that he was convicted for in May.

Samaha told the court during his retrial that he “cannot confirm his testimony to the Intelligence Branch because his mind was not clear when it raided his house” at the time of his arrest in August 2012.

Barrel bombs dropped from Syrian government helicopters on Thursday killed at least 11 civilians, including three children, in raids on a jihadist-held northern town, a monitoring group said.

The crudely constructed weapons were used on al-Bab, which lies in Aleppo province and is held by the extremist Islamic State group, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Three young men, including a former naval signalman, were being held Thursday by France's intelligence services, accused of plotting to kidnap and decapitate a member of the armed forces at a military base.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said security forces staged dawn raids on Monday and arrested four people, aged between 16 and 23, who were "planning to commit a terrorist act" at a French military installation.

Israel is responsible for the 2008 murder of a top security aide of Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to secret U.S. intelligence files.

Brigadier General Mohammed Sleiman was shot in the head and neck on August 1, 2008 by a small team of Israeli commandos as he enjoyed a dinner party at his luxury seaside home on the Syrian coast, said The Intercept website, citing the leaked files.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday said that Iran had a role to play in ending the bloody civil war in Syria.

Saying there would be no military solution to a conflict that has drawn in a host of regional actors, Obama said Iran was one important player.

Al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate and its Islamist allies launched an attack Wednesday on the last two Shiite Muslim villages under regime control in northwest Idlib province, militants and a monitor said.

The "Army of Conquest" rebel coalition, which includes Al-Qaida branch Al-Nusra Front, announced online its assault on the villages of Fuaa and Kafraya.

Thirteen civilians, among them seven children, were killed in aerial attacks by Syria's government Wednesday on the northern province of Aleppo, a monitoring group said.

"A woman and her three children, as well as another child, were killed when helicopters dropped a barrel bomb on the village of Taduf," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.