Sweden is considering drafting new legislation that would ban its nationals from fighting in armed conflicts for terrorist organizations such as Islamic State (IS), the government said Wednesday.

"It is completely unacceptable that Swedish citizens are traveling to (join) IS, financing the organization, or fighting for it," Justice Minister Morgan Johansson and Interior Minister Anders Ygeman wrote in a joint article in leading newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

Far from sharing Western euphoria over Kurds' capture of a key border town from Islamic State (IS) jihadists, Turkey is alarmed by the advance of Kurdish forces, fearing that they could create a powerful autonomous region on its doorstep.

Backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, fighters with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia this week seized the key Syrian border town of Tal Abyad from IS jihadists.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Saudi Arabia's defense minister this week in a meeting aimed at boosting bilateral ties after years of tensions over Syria, his aide said Wednesday.

Putin will meet Prince Mohammed bin Salman, believed to be a favored son of King Salman, on Thursday on the sidelines of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Kremlin's top foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov said.

Rebels surrounded a government-held Druze village on the Syrian side of the ceasefire line on the Golan Heights Wednesday after heavy fighting, a monitoring group said.

The advance came a day after Israel, with a significant Druze minority, said it was preparing for the possibility that people fleeing fighting might seek to cross to the Israeli-occupied side of the strategic plateau.

Syrian refugees in Turkey began returning to their homes in Tal Abyad Wednesday after Kurdish forces seized the border town in a major blow to the Islamic State group.

Some 400 men, women and children carrying their meager possessions crossed back into Syria through the Turkish border post of Akcakale, a day after Kurdish fighters backed by Syrian rebels took Tal Abyad.

At least 33 people were killed in the Damascus region as the army bombarded a rebel-held town and the rebels fired rockets into the capital, a monitoring group said Wednesday.

At least 24 people, including five children, were killed by government air strikes and rocket fire on Douma, a rebel-held suburb some 10 kilometers (six miles) northeast of the center of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

At least 16 people, among them 13 children, were killed in Syrian government air strikes on a town in southern Daraa province on Tuesday, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes hit a center for study of the Koran in the town of Eastern Ghariyah.

Two British fathers whose wives and children are suspected to have traveled to join jihadists in Syria made tearful appeals for them to return home on Tuesday.

The 12 family members, from Bradford in northern England, went missing after traveling to Medina in Saudi Arabia for an Islamic pilgrimage.

Israel pledged Tuesday to protect any refugees who fled towards it after a rebel offensive in Syria and Islamist violence there raised fears about the Druze minority's safety.

A significant number of Druze live in Israel, and leading members of the community have called on the government to help their brethren in Syria following the recent violence.

Syrian President Bashar Assad and U.N. peace envoy Staffan de Mistura agreed Tuesday to continue talks to find a political solution to the ongoing conflict, Syria's state news agency reported.

At the end of their meeting, Assad and de Mistura "agreed... to find a successful political solution in Syria and to return security and stability throughout Syria", SANA said.