Negotiators from Iran, Russia and Turkey met in Kazakhstan's capital Astana on Wednesday, the Kazakh foreign ministry said, for two days of talks aiming to preserve a fragile 10-week-old truce in northern Syria.

A Syrian refugee who spent several months in limbo in a budget terminal at a Malaysian airport has been granted permanent residency by Canada and is en route to Vancouver, his lawyer said Tuesday.

The U.N envoy for Syria has signaled that he is ready to abandon efforts to set up a committee on drafting a post-war constitution if no deal is reached by the end of December.

The planned constitutional committee agreed at a Russia-hosted conference in January has run into objections from the Syrian government over allowing religious leaders, representatives from women's groups and independent experts to take part.

Coalition air strikes Saturday killed at least 36 civilians related to the Islamic State group in a jihadist holdout in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border, a Britain-based monitor said.

Jihadists on Friday killed nine Syrian regime fighters near a planned buffer zone around the country's last major rebel bastion, a monitor said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has called on the country's Druze community to do military service, days after members of the minority were released following a mass abduction in July by the Islamic State group.

Syrian government forces killed 23 rebels near Idlib province on Friday, the deadliest clash to rock a buffer zone where a Russian-Turkish truce is to be enforced.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has informed the Security Council that he wishes to appoint Norwegian diplomat Geir Pedersen as the next special envoy to Syria, diplomatic sources told AFP Tuesday.

The UN Security Council will meet Friday to discuss Syria, diplomatic sources told AFP Thursday, as no progress appears to have been made with Damascus on establishing a post-war constitution.

Amnesty International on Monday condemned the US-led coalition's failure to acknowledge and investigate its role in civilian killings during the battle a year ago to oust jihadists from Syria's Raqa.