Morocco said Thursday it has arrested two jihadists who were planning to attack banks and multinational companies in the North African country and in France.

An interior ministry statement said a Frenchman and a Franco-Moroccan arrested on Monday had also been planning to join the Islamic State jihadist group.

Egypt has the right to use a Gaza buffer zone to boost its security, but should also be concerned about the impact on local communities, the United States said Thursday.

"Certainly we believe that Egypt has the right to take steps to maintain their own security. And we understand the threat that they are facing from the Sinai," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

The U.S. military's top officer on Thursday called for deploying American advisers to Iraq's Anbar province to counter Islamic State jihadists, but said the Baghdad government must first arm local Sunni tribes.

General Martin Dempsey's comments marked the first time the American military openly endorsed sending advisers to the restive western province, where Iraqi government troops have suffered a string of setbacks at the hands of the IS group.

Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel has castigated the U.S. strategy in Syria in a memo to the White House, saying Washington must explain its intentions toward President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The memo was sent last week to President Barack Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, a defense official said Thursday, confirming a New York Times report.

The Norwegian government said Thursday it would send about 120 troops to Iraq to help train its armed forces in the fight against the Islamic State jihadists.

Prime Minister Erna Solberg however stressed that "the Norwegian military will not follow the Iraqi soldiers into battle."

U.N. peace envoy Staffan de Mistura proposed Thursday to set up so-called "freeze zones" in war-torn Syria to suspend fighting in some areas and allow humanitarian aid to be delivered.

De Mistura told reporters after meeting with the U.N. Security Council that he did not have a peace plan but rather "an action plan" to ease suffering from the more than three-year war in Syria.

Israel recalled its ambassador to Sweden for "consultations" Thursday, hours after Stockholm officially recognized the state of Palestine, the foreign ministry spokesman said.

"This indeed reflects our irritation and annoyance at this unhelpful decision, which does not contribute to a return to (peace) negotiations," Emmanuel Nachshon told Agence France-Presse.

The United States urged all sides in Jerusalem to exercise restraint amid spiraling tensions in the holy city, and was working with Israelis, Palestinian and Jordanians to try to restore calm.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki also condemned the shooting of hardline rabbi Yehuda Glick, who holds both Israeli and U.S. citizenship.

U.S. embassies in the Gulf and Egypt are calling for vigilance after a post on a jihadist website encouraged attacks on American and other international schools there, specifically teachers.

The warnings have been issued by missions in Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Free Syrian Army (FSA) already has 400 fighters in Kobane and more are on the way, the commander of a unit there said in a rare public appearance Thursday.

Nizar al-Khatib, who said he was in charge of an FSA unit sent into Kobane, told reporters in Istanbul that a command post had been set up to coordinate activities between his forces and the Kurdish fighters also battling Islamic State (IS) jihadists for the town.