The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group has released at least 93 Syrian Kurds from the flashpoint town of Kobane who were kidnapped in February, a monitor said Tuesday.

They were among more than 160 Kurds abducted as they travelled east through Syria en route for Iraqi Kurdistan, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called Tuesday for the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group to help rebels in Syria's second city Aleppo hold out against the Damascus regime.

Fabius said that the coalition should not battle IS to the exclusion of supporting rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's regime, which he said had deliberately fueled the jihadists' rise.

An Istanbul court on Monday opened the retrial of more than 200 military officials accused of plotting against Turkey's Islamic-rooted government, after a top court in June quashed their original convictions.

A total of 236 defendants, including a number of high-ranking retired generals, were to appear before the court to testify on charges of seeking to bring down the government of now President, then prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2003.

At least 24 people, including children, drowned and a dozen were missing on Monday when an overloaded boat taking migrants towards EU waters sank in the Black Sea just off Istanbul, Turkish officials said.

Those on board were mainly Afghans in search of a better life in the EU. They had reportedly paid several thousand euros each to people smugglers for a seat on the overloaded vessel.

The Lebanese government has not given the greenlight for a swap deal with al-Nusra Front, a source said on Sunday, as media reports said General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim will seek the release of a number of Syrian women prisoners from the regime's jails.

“The members of the ministerial crisis cell were informed of al-Nusra's suggestions, but they are yet to take a stance on the proposals,” LBCI television reported in the afternoon.

The Qatari envoy who is in the outskirts of Arsal to negotiate in the case of kidnapped soldiers by extremist groups since last August, received on Friday the list of demands of the abductees.

According to LBCI: “The Qatari envoy, who is in the outskirts of Arsal, received the list of demands of the soldiers' kidnappers.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday took aim at Western leaders for focusing too much on the battle over the strategic Syrian border town of Kobane.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with French President Francois Hollande, Erdogan said: "Why are coalition forces continually bombing this town of Kobane?"

At least 17 people were killed and 29 injured Friday when an overloaded bus carrying agricultural workers crashed in the Isparta region of southern Turkey, the Dogan news agency reported.

The workers, mostly women, were on their way to pick apples at an orchard in the region when the bus turned over onto its side due to brake failure, it said.

The Turkish foreign ministry and Norwegian embassy in Ankara on Thursday received suspicious packages, officials said, the latest in a string of such incidents in the country.

Turkey's emergencies management agency AFAD said in a statement that both reported receiving the suspect packages in the morning.

Syria accused Turkey on Thursday of a "flagrant violation" of its sovereignty, as Ankara allowed Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters and opposition rebels to cross its border to battle jihadists.

"Once again, Turkey has shown its conspiratorial role... by allowing foreign forces and terrorist groups to enter Syria," said a foreign ministry statement reported by state television.