Missiles fired by Israeli warplanes struck a warehouse at Damascus International Airport late Friday, causing damage but no casualties, a Syrian military official said.

The unidentified official was quoted by Syrian state media as saying Israeli aircraft coming from the south fired several missiles at areas near Damascus about 45 minutes before midnight. He said Syrian air defense units shot down most of the missiles, but gave no details on other sites targeted.

An estimated 25,000 people have fled escalating violence over the last six months in eastern Syria, where die-hard jihadists are defending their last bastions, the UN said Friday. 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed Thursday the United States and its allies would work diplomatically to expel all Iranian troops from Syria, urging Middle East nations to forge a common stand against Tehran.

"It's time for old rivalries to end, for the sake of the greater good of the region," said Pompeo at a keynote address in Cairo.

Turkey will launch an offensive against Syrian Kurdish forces if the United States delays the withdrawal of its troops from the war-torn country, the foreign minister said Thursday. 

"If the (pullout) is put off with ridiculous excuses like Turks are massacring Kurds, which do not reflect the reality, we will implement this decision,"  Mevlut Cavusoglu told NTV television.

The main jihadist alliance in Syria's Idlib region reached a deal ending days of deadly fighting with rival rebels and extending its influence over the rebel enclave.

They always anticipated U.S. support would run out, but President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to rapidly pull U.S. forces out of northeast Syria has nevertheless stunned the Kurds there, who for the past three years have been America's partner in fighting the Islamic State group.

A withdrawal will leave Syrian Kurds exposed to Turkish threats of an invasion from one side and Syrian government troops on the other.

The Syrian army entered the key northern city of Manbij for the first time in six years on Friday, a spokesman said in a televised statement.

Moscow will early next year host the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey to discuss the Syrian conflict, Russia's deputy foreign minister said Friday, after the United States announced it was withdrawing troops from the country.

Thousands of civilians, mostly relatives of jihadist fighters, are fleeing the Islamic State group's last stronghold in eastern Syria, a war monitor said on Thursday.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 11,500 people have fled the area since Kurdish-led forces broke IS defences and took the jihadists' main hub of Hajin two weeks ago.

With Christmas approaching, Nabil al-Aash dusts off religious books as he attempts to tidy up the war-scarred Saint George Church in the town of Arbin, northeast of the Syrian capital Damascus.