Syrian Amir al-Halabi is once again alone this Valentine's Day, separated from his sweetheart by the war that has left the lovers on opposite sides of the divided city of Aleppo.

Halabi, 20, is a photojournalist living in the rebel-held east of Aleppo city, a once-thriving economic hub that has been devastated by Syria's conflict that began in March 2011.

Syria's government on Sunday condemned Turkey for two days of shelling targeting mainly Kurdish forces in the northern province of Aleppo and urged the United Nations to act, state media said.

It also accused Turkey of allowing gunmen and weaponry to enter Syria from the Bab al-Salama crossing into Aleppo province, where government forces have recently launched a major campaign.

The Turkish army struck positions of Kurdish fighters inside Syria for a second day Sunday in response to incoming fire, state media said, as an explosive standoff between Ankara and Syrian Kurds intensified.

The army hit Democratic Union Party (PYD) targets around the Syrian town of Azaz using howitzers stationed on the Turkish side of the border, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Russia has dispatched a new ship armed with cruise missiles to the Mediterranean, the navy announced Saturday, as reports said it is bound for Syria.

The Zelyony Dol, a patrol ship armed with Kalibr cruise missiles that only joined the Black Sea fleet in December, departed for the Mediterranean, the Black Sea fleet said in a statement.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia could launch a ground operation against Islamic State jihadists in Syria, the Turkish foreign minister said Saturday, adding the kingdom was already sending jets to a Turkish base to attack the extremists.

The coordinated plans by Riyadh and Ankara, who are pursuing an increasingly tight alliance, add a new element to the explosive situation in Syria where Russia has been backing a successful regime offensive against rebels.

Syrian President Bashar Assad is "deluded" if he thinks there is a military solution to the war in Syria, nearly five years into a brutal conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people, a U.S. official said Friday.

In an exclusive interview with AFP released earlier, the defiant Syrian strongman vowed to recapture Syria as a whole and keep "fighting terrorism."

A key Syrian opposition body said Friday that a proposed pause in fighting in the country would have to be examined and decided upon by rebel forces on the ground.

The comments came a day after world powers agreed an ambitious plan for a "cessation of hostilities" across Syria to begin within a week.

Some 100,000 Syrian refugees are being looked after in camps inside Syria close to the Turkish border, including 35,000 who this month fled a Russian-backed regime offensive in northern Aleppo province, a top Turkish official said Friday.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan, whose country has come under increasing pressure to open its border to people fleeing the violence, said the refugees were being accommodated in nine camps just across the border with Syria.

Some 51,000 people have been displaced since Damascus, backed by Russian air strikes, launched its latest offensive on the Syrian city of Aleppo last week, the United Nations reported Thursday.

"Since the latest offensive by Government forces began last week in the Governorate of Aleppo, reportedly accompanied by numerous air strikes by Russian and Syrian aircraft, some 51,000 civilians have been displaced and a further 300,000 are at risk of being placed under siege," U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

Two suspected people smugglers went on trial in Turkey on Thursday charged with causing the death in September of a Syrian toddler the picture of whose lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach shocked the world.

The trial of Syrian nationals Muwafaka Alabash and Asem Alfrhad opened at the criminal court in the western Turkish resort of Bodrum, the Dogan news agency reported. If convicted, they face up to 35 years in jail.