LIVE BLOG: Latest from war in Syria

The US has branded "unacceptable" fighting between Turkish-backed forces and pro-Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, following warnings from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that his country would fight Kurdish militants in Syria with the "same determination" as Islamic State.

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French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he was pressing members of the U.N. Security Council, including Russia, to condemn the Syrian government after a report found Syrian troops had used chemical weapons.

"I see no reason that could be given, or any arguments that could be made, for not condemning the use of chemical weapons," he said, when asked if Russia would support the resolution.

The Security Council is due to discuss the report this week.

A joint investigation by the United Nations and the global chemical weapons watchdog OPCW found that Syrian government troops were responsible for two toxic gas attacks and Islamic State militants used sulphur mustard gas.

(Source: Reuters)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Sunday to devote equal energy to combatting Islamic State (IS) militants and Syrian Kurdish fighters, on the fifth day of a major offensive that has left dozens dead.

"We will make any kind of contribution to the work to clear Daesh (IS) from Syria," Erdogan told a rally in the southern city of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border.

"For the issue of the PYD (Democratic Union Party) terror group in Syria, we have just the same determination," he added, referring to the main pro-Kurdish party in northern Syria and its People's Protection Units (YPG) militia.

On Sunday, Turkish forces ramped up their offensive, with Turkish warplanes and artillery pounding areas held by pro-Kurdish forces close to a town liberated from IS this week.

Ankara said its raids had killed 25 Kurdish "terrorists" and that the army was doing everything it could to avoid civilian casualties.

At least 15 funeral mourners were killed in a barrel bomb attack on a rebel-held district of Syria's Aleppo on Saturday, as the UN envoy for Syria called for all warring sides to agree by Sunday to allow the first safe delivery of relief supplies to the divided city.

The Britain-based group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said government aircraft dropped two explosive-packed barrel bombs several minutes apart on the Maadi district of eastern Aleppo.

Syrian civil defence, a volunteer rescue group, told Al Jazeera that Syrian government aircraft hit a group of people gathered in the al-Maadi neighbourhood to mourn the deaths of 15 women and children killed in a raid earlier this week. 

The strikes hit "near a tent where people were receiving condolences for those killed this week in the neighbouring district of Bab al-Nayrab," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"There was a first barrel bomb, and when people gathered and the ambulances arrived, a second barrel struck and there were more deaths," an AFP reporter in the rebel-held part of the city said.

Kurdish-backed fighters clashed with the Turkish military in tanks on the Syrian side of the border on Sunday, a monitoring group and Kurdish sources said.

"Turkish tanks advanced today near Al-Amarneh in Aleppo province, south of the border, and clashes broke out between them and fighters backed by Kurdish forces," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

A source within northern Syria's autonomous Kurdish region confirmed the clashes.

Turkish airstrikes also hit Kurdish forces positioned south of Jarabulus on Saturday.

Turkey on Saturday sent more tanks into Syria to bolster a military offensive against Islamic State and Kurdish fighters, as a diplomatic push for a new ceasefire in Syria gathered pace.

An AFP photographer in the village of Karkamis on the Turkish side of the border saw six more tanks roll over the frontier as mop-up operations continued in a town wrested from IS.

Sporadic explosions were heard from over the border as Turkish-backed rebels carried out de-mining work in the town of Jarabulus seized from IS on Wednesday.

The state-run Anadolu news agency confirmed that the rebels were working to destroy explosives left behind by IS militants, with 20 different sets destroyed on Friday alone.

At least 15 civilians were killed in a barrel bomb attack on a rebel-held district of Syria's Aleppo city on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

The Britain-based group said the strikes hit Maadi district in eastern Aleppo, near a tent where relatives of people killed in a barrel bombing earlier this week were receiving condolences.

Two US fighter pilots have told of a high-stakes encounter over northern Syria, when they stealthily shadowed a pair of Syrian regime jets and were prepared to shoot them down.

The US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria and Iraq last week scrambled fighters to intercept Syrian jets targeting Kurdish forces working with US advisers near the northeastern city of Hasakeh.

On 19 August, a pair of US F-22s raced toward two Syrian Su-24 fighters that had flown into the region.

The Americans' mission was to determine if the Syrian planes were going to target coalition ground forces and - if necessary - shoot them down.

"I followed him around for all three of his loops," one of the US pilots, an Air Force major, told USA Today in a story Friday.

"He didn't appear to have any idea I was there."

The pilots said they got to within 2,000 feet (600 meters) of the Syrian jets. F-22s are stealth fighters and pilots are trained to avoid being seen.

The pilot of the second US jet, a captain, said he tried to hail the Syrians on a common radio frequency but got no response.

In the coalition flight control center in Qatar, Major General Jay Silveria told USA Today he was ready to tell the pilots to fire on the Syrian planes if they threatened coalition forces.

In the end, the Syrian jets left and appeared not to have been armed. 

The AFP news agency has photos of the beginning of the evacuation of residents from Daraya showing Syrian government soldiers relaxing on furniture in the streets:

In another photo, a soldier stood guard with a truck-mounted gun as a bus with residents aboard prepared to leave the Damascus suburb: