Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the EU on Thursday that Ankara would allow millions of refugees to head to Europe if the bloc criticised Turkey's military offensive in Syria. 

Syria's Kurds said Thursday that Turkish bombardment had hit a prison they use to house captured Islamic State group fighters, despite Ankara's pledge to do nothing to undermine the campaign against the jihadists.

The Arab League is convening an emergency meeting on Saturday to discuss Turkey's offensive against Kurdish forces in Syria, the body said Wednesday.

Damascus is ready to welcome Syria's Kurds back into the fold after Washington left them to face Turkish military threats alone, a senior official said in comments published Tuesday.

Nine jihadists were killed Saturday in Russian airstrikes on Syria's war-torn province of Idlib, a monitoring group said.

The U.N. special envoy for Syria said Monday that the convening of a committee to draft a new constitution for Syria on Oct. 30 "should be a sign of hope for the long-suffering Syrian people" — but it will matter only if it becomes a step out of the more than eight-year conflict.

Geir Pedersen told a U.N. Security Council meeting on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders at the General Assembly that the committee alone cannot resolve the conflict, saying that actions to de-escalate violence and move toward a nationwide cease-fire "are absolutely essential."

Among the destroyed buildings of Syria's Aleppo, a battered sign between two army checkpoints welcomes visitors to an area earmarked to become a beacon of post-war reconstruction.

The United Nations announced Monday the long-awaited creation of a constitution-writing committee on Syria that will include the government and opposition, but it remained to be seen if the step could finally end the civil war. 

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres hailed the committee as the first step toward finding a political settlement to the conflict, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people in more than eight years of fighting.

A once-detained Iranian oil tanker pursued by the U.S. appears to be off the coast of Syria, where Tehran reportedly promised the vessel would not go when authorities in Gibraltar agreed to release it several weeks ago, according to satellite images obtained Saturday by The Associated Press.

The appearance of the Adrian Darya-1 in waters near Tartus comes as Iran was prepared to Saturday to announce what further steps it had taken to move away from its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, more than a year after President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the accord.

Syrian regime defences Tuesday confronted drones headed towards a key airbase of government ally Russia in northwest Syria, state media said, on the fourth day of a ceasefire in the region.