Charities meeting in London Wednesday ahead of a Syria donors' conference in London urged more funding and protection for refugees on the eve of talks.

The coalition of over 90 international and Syrian groups including Oxfam and the fund set up by Nobel Prize winning Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai spoke out the day before world leaders meet in London for the main event.

Syria's government has condemned alleged cross-border shelling by Turkish forces on Monday as a "blatant breach of international law", state media reported.

Late Monday, state news agency SANA quoted a source in the Syrian foreign ministry as condemning the reported artillery fire into northern Latakia province.

Syrian regime forces edged closer to breaking a long-running rebel siege on two government-held Shiite villages in Aleppo province on Tuesday, backed by heavy Russian air strikes.

A Syrian colonel on the ground said government forces were "three kilometers (1.9 miles) from Nubol and Zahraa."

A mother who took her toddler to Syria and joined the Islamic State (IS) group was sentenced to six years in prison on Monday after becoming the first British woman to be convicted after returning home.

Tareena Shakil, 26, was found guilty by a court in Birmingham, central England of IS membership and encouraging terrorism in posts on Twitter before leaving Britain.

Representatives of Syria's largest mainstream opposition umbrella group were set to arrive in Geneva on Saturday evening, allaying fears they would boycott U.N.-brokered talks aimed at ending the country's brutal civil war.

A delegation from the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC) was preparing to leave Riyadh, spokesman Monzer Makhous told AFP.

A Turkish citizen fighting in Syria who Moscow has accused of killing a Russian pilot said Friday he was not scared Russian forces are targeting him, after making an unexpected public appearance in Istanbul.

Alparslan Celik has been accused by Russia of killing in cold blood Russian pilot Oleg Peshkov as he parachuted to the ground after his plane was shot down by Turkish air forces on the Syrian border on November 24.

A Syrian aid group on Wednesday denounced the incessant bombing of medical facilities in the war-wracked country, where 177 hospitals have been destroyed and nearly 700 health workers killed.

"Since 2012, health infrastructure has been continuously targeted by bombings," said Oubaida al-Mufti, president of the Union of Rescue and Medical Care (UOSSM).

At least 23 people, most of them from the Ahrar al-Sham rebel group, were killed by a truck suicide bomber in Syria's Aleppo city on Monday, a monitor said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 19 fighters from the group and four civilians were killed in the blast in the Sukari district of the city.

A new round of peace talks to end the Syrian conflict will begin in Geneva on Friday, U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura said, after a delay over who will represent the country's fractious opposition.

Negotiations had been scheduled to open on Monday, but de Mistura told reporters "a stalemate" over the makeup of the delegations had forced the date back.

Pro-government forces overran the last major rebel-held town in Syria's coastal Latakia province Sunday, as the United Nations prepares to host talks on ending the country's nearly five-year war.

State television said the army, working with pro-regime militia, took control of Rabia after heavy fighting with rebels.