The U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday agreed to set up a panel to gather evidence on war crimes in Syria, taking a first step toward prosecuting those responsible for atrocities in the nearly six-year war.

A resolution on establishing the investigative mechanism was adopted in the 193-nation assembly by a vote of 105 to 15, with 52 abstentions.

The IS group may be on the defensive in Syria and Iraq, but it now has thousands of foreign volunteer fighters who, once home again, will pose a major threat, experts warn.

Vehicles were en route Tuesday to two government-held villages under rebel siege in Syria's Idlib province to evacuate sick and wounded residents, a Syrian official told state media.

After Mohammed Walo's Aleppo neighborhood was recaptured by Syria's army, he crossed into the well-stocked government-held west for groceries. On the way back, he was stopped at a checkpoint and conscripted.

French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday joined calls for international observers to oversee the evacuation of civilians trapped under fire in the wrecked Syrian city of Aleppo.

The Islamic State jihadist group recaptured Palmyra on Sunday after Syrian armed forces pulled out of the desert city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A Turkish soldier was killed Wednesday in a car bomb attack in northern Syria where troops are helping Syrian rebels capture a key town from Islamic State jihadists, the army said.

Russia said Wednesday that an army colonel working as a military adviser in Syria has died several days after being wounded by rebel shelling in Aleppo. 

A seven-year-old Syrian girl whose Twitter account from Aleppo gained international attention has fled her home amid heavy fighting, but she and her family are safe for now, her father told AFP Tuesday.

Rebels put up fierce resistance on Friday in a key district of Syria's battered Aleppo, where a regime offensive has left bodies in the streets and sparked a global outcry.

The government assault on the northern city has spurred a mass exodus of tens of thousands of residents from the opposition-held east and prompted fresh calls by Russia for aid corridors.