Cyprus police have arrested a 36-year-old man for allegedly driving one of two boats that brought 305 Syrian refugees to the Mediterranean island's northwestern coast.

Another 29-year-old man was also taken into custody on suspicion of migrant trafficking.

At least 34 civilians were killed on Sunday when Russian warplanes targeted ferries carrying them across the Euphrates River near Syria's eastern city of Deir Ezzor, a monitor said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor initially reported 21 deaths in Russian air strikes but later raised the toll to 34, saying that "more bodies have been found in the river."

The Palestinian Authority has released a prominent activist a week after he was arrested for writing a Facebook post criticizing the government of President Mahmoud Abbas.

Issa Amro's lawyer said Sunday that his client was released on $1,400 bail after being held under a recent edict that allows the government to crack down on social media critics.

Turkish authorities said Sunday they stopped 313 migrants on the Black Sea attempting to reach Balkan countries in the last two days, suggesting the emergence of an alternative route to Europe.

Turkey's coast guard said it stopped a fishing boat carrying 93 Syrians and one Afghan off the northern coast of Istanbul. The coast guard says they were with a suspected Turkish smuggler.

Egypt's official news agency said Sunday police killed nine suspected militants when they raided two apartments in a densely populated Cairo neighborhood.

The Middle East News Agency said five policemen were wounded in Sunday's early morning exchange of fire in the Ard el-Liwa district. It said police found rifles, ammunition, bomb-making materials and explosive devices at the apartments.

The Saudi king and Russia's foreign minister have met in Saudi Arabia ahead of a possible visit by the monarch to Russia next month.

Saudi Arabia's state news agency said King Salman and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Sunday discussed the war in Syria and an Arab diplomatic crisis with Qatar.

German authorities believe the Islamic State group holds some 11,100 blank Syrian passports that can be completed with any individual's details, weekly newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported Sunday.

Iraqi officials say they are holding more than 1,300 foreign women and children, the families of Islamic State fighters, at a camp for displaced people in northern Iraq.

Syrian troops have broken the Islamic State group's siege of the eastern Deir Ezzor military airport, state media reported, days after ending another siege on residential districts of the city.

State news agency SANA said the breach came "after the forces advancing from the cemetery southwest of the city linked up with the forces holding the airbase."

US-backed fighters launched a new offensive on Saturday to oust the Islamic State group from swathes of Syria's eastern Deir Ezzor province, a top commander announced.

The Syrian Democratic Forces are already fighting for IS's de facto capital in Raqa, and they will now aim to clear the jihadists from territory east of the Euphrates River, said Ahmad Abu Khawlah in a statement.