Turkey on Tuesday said Islamic State (IS) militants were advancing on a tiny exclave considered Turkish territory in northern Syria, but insisted it was still in control of the land despite reports its guards there were encircled.

The tomb of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire Osman I, on the Euphrates river, is Turkish territory under a 1920s treaty and still guarded by a few dozen Turkish troops.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim has said that the negotiations to secure the release of the so-called Arsal hostages were on the right track.

Ibrahim told As Safir daily in remarks published on Tuesday that there was progress in the talks aimed at setting free the soldiers and policemen taken captive by jihadists from the northeastern border town of Arsal last month.

One of the leaders of a Turkish pro-Kurdish party on Tuesday crossed the border to visit the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab which has been besieged by IS militants, calling for urgent action by Turkey against the jihadists.

Selahattin Demirtas, a co-leader of the People's Democratic Party (HDP) who came in third against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in August presidential elections, also met a senior Syrian Kurd leader in the town, known as Kobane to the Kurds.

Islamic State jihadists advanced Monday to within five kilometers (three miles) of the key Kurdish town of Ain al-Arab on Syria's border with Turkey, a monitor said.

"They are five kilometers to the south and southeast of Kobane," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, using the Kurdish name for Ain al-Arab.

Turkey is undergoing a "worrying rollback" on human rights under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with curbs on judicial independence and media freedom, Human Rights Watch said Monday.

Erdogan won the presidential election in August after over a decade as prime minister, despite a turbulent year that saw unprecedented protests and corruption allegations against his inner circle.

Turkey cannot stay out of the international coalition fighting Islamic State (IS) jihadists, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday, as Ankara prepares in the coming week to define its military involvement.

Turkey has for months frustrated the West with its cautious position against IS, but there appears to have been a sea change in its policy following Erdogan's trip last week to the United States.

Turkey's Islamic-rooted government has banned pupils from wearing tattoos or body piercings in schools, a measure denounced by opponents as oppressive and unenforceable, reports said Sunday.

While tattoos are frowned upon by conservative elements in Turkey's diverse society, they are highly fashionable among secular urban youth, including school-age teens.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam hoped that the case of the soldiers and policemen abducted by Islamists from Syria will be kept away from political extortion, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Sunday.

He told the daily that he supports holding negotiations with the captors in order to release the hostages, who were abducted in August.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could take a military role in the coalition fighting Islamic State (IS) militants as Ankara moves to take a frontline position in the campaign, the Hurriyet daily reported Saturday.

In comments made aboard his presidential plane to Turkish reporters as he traveled back from the United States, Erdogan also indicated he backed the use of ground troops inside Syria, Hurriyet reported on its website.

Three Turkish police were killed after an ambush in Turkey's overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast, amid renewed strains between the authorities and rebels fighting for self-rule, reports said Saturday.

The private Dogan news agency said that traffic police on the highway between the southeastern cities of Diyarbakir and Bitlis were attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and then rifles late Friday.