Six pro-Syrian regime fighters were killed in overnight Israeli air strikes near Damascus, a war monitor said Monday. 

The UN refugee agency on Thursday appealed to Turkey to take in more refugees from Syria, as hundreds of thousands flee the regime's brutal assault on the last rebel enclave.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Tuesday called for the creation of humanitarian corridors in northwestern Syria, expressing horror at a Russian-backed regime offensive in the area.

Turkey has sent nearly 150 vehicles with commandos and ammunition to reinforce its observation posts in Idlib, Syria's last rebel-held region, Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported Friday.

The Islamic State group has maintained its capabilities in Syria despite the death of its chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an independent US government watchdog said in a report on Tuesday.

The European Union on Thursday condemned renewed fighting around a rebel stronghold in northwest Syria, demanding an end to "unacceptable" air strikes that have killed civilians.

Almost nine years of civil war in Syria has left more than 380,000 people dead including over 115,000 civilians, a war monitor said in a new toll Saturday.

A Syrian refugee disabled after being shot in a Greek coastguard pursuit in 2014 is demanding 100,000 euros ($111,000) in damages from the Greek state, a report said Saturday.

Five pro-Iranian fighters were killed by unidentified missiles on Wednesday evening in Syria's eastern province of Deir Ezzor, a war monitor said.

Syrian government forces pressed ahead Monday with a new military assault on the country's last rebel stronghold that began last week, an offensive that has set off a mass exodus of civilians fleeing to safer areas near the Turkish border.

Under the cover of airstrikes and heavy shelling, Syrian troops have been pushing into the northwestern province of Idlib toward a major rebel-held town, Maaret al-Numan. The town sits on a key highway linking the capital Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest.