Christian leaders from Syria and beyond are planning a summit involving Muslim representatives in a drive to use faith to spur peace efforts, the World Council of Churches said Thursday.

"We plan to have parallel consultations when the Geneva II meeting happens, so we can mobilize both Church leaders and other religious leaders for a commitment to a peace process in Syria," WCC head Olav Fyske Tveit told reporters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he was confident but not 100 percent sure that Syria would carry out its commitments to destroy its chemical weapons stockpiles under a Russia-U.S. agreement.

"Will we manage to carry it through? I can't say 100 percent, but all that we have seen recently, in the last few days, inspires confidence that it is possible and that it will be done," Putin said at a meeting of the Valdai international discussion club with Western politicians and journalists in the northwestern Novgorod region.

A day after an al-Qaida front group took control of the north Syrian town of Azaz, on the Turkish border, residents on Thursday shared online messages expressing their resentment and anger.

The jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) took control of Azaz after an hours-long battle against what had been the town's main fighting group, the Northern Storm brigade.

British police said Thursday they had arrested two more people over alleged involvement in terrorism in Syria following the discovery of ammunition at the port of Dover.

A man aged 37 and a woman aged 36 were detained at a house in Essex, east of London, on Wednesday following a search and are still being questioned, the Metropolitan Police said.

Turkey has temporarily shut its border post after fighting between Syrian rebels and an al-Qaida front group in the northern town of Aazaz, a government official said Thursday.

"The Oncupinar border gate has been closed due to activity and uncertainty on the Syrian side of the border," the official told Agence France Presse, adding that it was a temporary measure.

Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged Yemen to combat attacks on journalists, saying threats have increased since the ouster of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2012 following nationwide protests.

HRW's acting Mideast director, Joe Stork, urged the Yemeni government to "condemn and rigorously investigate all attacks on journalists and ensure those responsible are brought to justice."

France's interior minister revealed Thursday that hundreds of homegrown Islamist militants were signing up to fight in Syria and warned they could pose a security threat when they come back.

More than 300 French nationals or residents are either currently fighting in Syria's civil war, planning to go and fight or have recently returned from there, the minister, Manuel Valls, told France Inter radio.

A Bahrain court on Thursday jailed five Shiites for periods up to 10 years after convicting them of attacking a government building with petrol bombs, a judicial source said.

Three defendants were sentenced to 10 years in prison, and two others were jailed for three years over the attack on Dar al-Hukumah, the source said. Two others were acquitted.

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip has hit southern Israel, the army said on Thursday, but no casualties or damage was reported.

The remains of the rocket, which was fired on Wednesday, were found early on Thursday after a search by security forces, an army statement said.

A Syrian official said a roadside bomb has targeted a bus in the country's central province, killing 19 people.

The official at the governor's office in Homs province says Thursday's explosion in the village of Jbourin also wounded four people on the bus. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.