Turkey is ready to take any kind of action to combat jihadists in Syria but only if the international community creates a coordinated strategy against the regime of President Bashar Assad, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

Asked in an interview with CNN broadcast late Monday if Turkey could send troops into Syria, Davutoglu replied this could only happen if "others do their own part."

Health Minister Wael Abou Faour expressed hope that the case of the abducted soldiers and policemen would witness a breakthrough in the upcoming days, stressing that “sacrifices” should be made.

“The cabinet will continue the serious negotiations that should lead to the release of the abductees,” Abou Faour told reporters at the Grand Serail after meeting with Prime Minister Tammam Salam.

Pro-Kurdish protesters clashed Tuesday with Turkish police in Istanbul in a new show of anger over the lack of action by the government against jihadists fighting for a key Syrian town.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has so far not intervened militarily against Islamic State (IS) jihadists fighting for the Kurdish border town of Kobane, to the fury of Turkey's Kurds.

Fresh air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition on Tuesday hit positions held by Islamic State jihadists in the southwest of the key Syrian border town of Kobane, according to an Agence France Presse journalist just across the border in Turkey.

The strikes came a day after the extremists pushed into Kobane, seizing three districts in the city's east after fierce street battles with its Kurdish defenders. 

The White House Monday praised Vice President Joe Biden for being big enough to admit his mistakes, after he apologized to two key allies over an embarrassing diplomatic gaffe on the Middle East.

Biden called leaders in the two states, key members of the U.S. coalition taking on the Islamic State group, after he was quoted as saying that they had financed and armed the Sunni jihadists.

The Turkish government last week won parliamentary authorization to send its armed forces into Syria to fight jihadists but imminent action is unlikely as it sets the West tough conditions for military cooperation.

Islamic State (IS) jihadists have advanced to the Syrian town of Kobane, just a few kilometers from the Turkish border yet still NATO member Ankara appears in no hurry to use force.

Cyprus said on Monday that U.N.-led peace talks could be wrecked if Turkey persists in trying to hamper the divided island's energy search.

Nicosia is unhappy that Ankara is determined to search for oil and gas in the same region where the government has already licensed exploratory drills in its exclusive economic zone.

The new head of NATO said Monday it would protect member Turkey against attacks from the jihadist Islamic State group, which is fighting to capture territory in Iraq and Syria near the Turkish border.

"Turkey is a NATO ally and our main responsibility is to protect the integrity, the borders of Turkey," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters.

On a dusty firing range outside the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Arbil, peshmerga fighter Ardalan Aziz Hamad hefts his new German-made assault rifle and is clearly impressed.

Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State (IS) jihadists for the Syrian town of Kobane employed a new tactic when a female suicide bomber blew herself up in an attack claimed to have killed dozens of militants.

The young woman, a fulltime fighter with the Syria-based Kurdish rebel group the People's Protection Units (YPG), killed herself in the attack on Sunday, Kurdish sources told AFP.