US forces have carried out an air strike targeting the Islamic State group militant "Jihadi John", with a "high degree of certainty" he was hit. Emwazi, the Kuwaiti-born British militant, appeared in videos of the beheadings of Western hostages.

President Vladimir Putin has defended Russia's military operations in Syria, saying the aim is to "stabilise the legitimate authority" of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Mr Putin told Russian state TV Moscow also wanted to "create conditions for a political compromise" in Syria.

He denied that Russian air strikes were hitting moderate opposition groups rather than Islamic State militants.

Syrian forces are said to have made significant advances against rebels.

Government gains in Idlib, Hama and Latakia provinces were on Sunday reported both by Damascus and opposition activists.

The main battlefront is currently close to the key highway that links the capital with other major cities, including Aleppo, and Mr Assad's forces are believed to be seeking to cut off rebels in Idlib.

'Under siege'

In the interview with Rossiya One TV broadcast on Sunday, President Puti

The fighters crossed over from Turkey on Friday and Saturday and are now located in areas north of the city of Aleppo, said the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Their arrival comes shortly after U.S. officials acknowledged that the Pentagon's program to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels to help fight ISIS had fallen far short of its original aims.

A top U.S. general told the Senate last week that of the thousands of fighters the U.S. military was supposed to train in the first year, only four or five remained in place on the battlefield.

Yemen's Houthi rebels have released six foreign hostages including three Americans, two Saudis and a Briton, Yemeni officials say.

There are no details on their identity. They are reportedly being flown from the capital Sanaa to neighbouring Oman.

Shia Houthi rebels have seized much of Yemen, including Sanaa, since last year. They are fighting government troops aided by a Saudi-led coalition.

Many foreigners have been taken hostage in Yemen in recent years.

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, has expressed US concern over reports of Russia's enhanced military build-up in Syria in a telephone call with his Russian counterpart, according to the US state department.

The phone call came a day after media reports quoted US officials as describing an increase in Russian military activity in Syria, expanding the country's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"The secretary made clear that if such reports were accurate, these actions could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation with the anti-ISIL coalition operating in Syria," the state department said on Saturday, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

At least 12 Syrians trying to reach Greece have drowned off Turkey after the boats they were travelling in sank.An image of one of the victims - a young boy lying face down on the beach - has sparked an international outcry over the human cost of the crisis.The picture, released by a Turkish news agency, is trending worldwide on Twitter under the #KiyiyaVuranInsanlik ("humanity washed ashore") hashtag.

Azerbaijan has sentenced Khadija Ismayilova, an award-winning investigative journalist and anti-corruption campaigner, to seven-and-a-half years in jail over several fraud charges which she denounced as politically motivated.The court in Baku on Tuesday sentenced Ismayilova to prison for a string of convictions, including, embezzlement, tax evasion, illegal business activity, and abuse of power, but found her not guilty of inciting a colleague to commit suicide.

Satellite images confirm the destruction of the famed Temple of Bel in Syria's Palmyra, the United Nations said."We can confirm destruction of the main building of the Temple of Bel as well as a row of columns in its immediate vicinity," the UN training and research agency UNITAR said, providing satellite images from before and after a powerful blast in the ruins of the ancient city on Sunday.

Riot police have broken up an anti-government protest in Beirut where at least 10,000 people had gathered to demonstrate against a services crisis.The police chased men and women from the city's Riad al-Solh square shortly after 10pm, beating both men and women as they cleared the area. Several protesters were arrested.The demonstrators had gathered in downtown Beirut to call for the resignation of officials responsible for the current waste crisis and for new elections.The police earlier had called for peaceful protesters to move from the square after protesters set fire to rubbish and began climbing through a barbed-wire barricade.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has reportedly executed at least 91 people across Syria within a period of one month, including 39 people from its own ranks.The executions were carried out over accusations of sorcery, sodomy, adultery, banditry, joining and cooperating with rival rebel groups, cooperating with US-led coalition fighting ISIL, cooperating with President Bashar al-Assad's regime forces, and insulting God, the UK-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights reported.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has defended the presence of fighters from the Lebanese Shia Hezbollah movement among the ranks of the Syrian army, saying his government had legitimately requested their help.In an interview aired on Tuesday night on the official Hezbollah channel, al-Manar, Assad said the presence of non-Syrian fighters among the Syrian army was no justification for the presence of foreign fighters in the ranks of the rebels.

Gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms have killed two NATO soldiers at a base in the country's south, the coalition said, in the latest "insider attack" on foreign troops.Wednesday's attack in the volatile province of Helmand is the first such incident since April, highlighting long-simmering tensions between Afghan and foreign forces.

Islamic State militants have destroyed Palmyra's ancient temple of Baalshamin, Syrian officials and activists say.

Syria's head of antiquities was quoted as saying the temple was blown up on Sunday. The UK -based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that it happened a month ago.

IS took control of Palmyra in May, sparking fears for the site.

Women in Saudi Arabia have begun registering to vote in municipal elections, the first time they are able to take part in the electoral process in the kingdom. Women will also be able to stand as candidates in the polls, slated for December.The ongoing voter registration and the planned vote usher in a new and "exciting time" for women, as they participate in local governance, Afnan Linjawi, a Saudi writer, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday.

Syrian activists say at least 80 people have died in government air strikes on a marketplace in the rebel-held town of Douma, near Damascus.Around 200 people were reportedly injured in the attack.Government forces have been regularly attacking Douma and its surrounding areas in recent months with air strikes and helicopter barrel bombs.Hundreds of civilians have been killed alongside opposition fighters.