Pristina (AFP) - Jordan's King Abdullah II warned Tuesday of a "third world war against humanity", describing the Islamic State group as "savage outlaws of religion" in the wake of the Paris attacks.

During an official visit to Kosovo, Abdullah said both Europe and Islam were under attack from the "scourge" of terrorism that could strike anywhere and at any time.

"We are facing a third world war against humanity and this is what brings us all together," he told a press conference.

"This is a war, as I've said repeatedly, within Islam," he said, stressing the high number of Muslim victims of the Islamic State (IS) group.

Abdullah said groups such as IS "expose themselves daily as savage outlaws of religion, devoid of humanity, respecting no laws and no boundaries".

"So therefore we must act fast and holistically to tackle and respond to the interconnected threats whether it is in this region, Africa, Asia or in Europe," he said.

In France's worst-ever terror attacks, IS gunmen and suicide bombers murdered 129 people in coordinated onslaughts in Paris on Friday night.

Muslim-majority Jordan is, like France, a member of the US-led coalition battling the group, which controls swathes of land in its neighbours Iraq and Syria.

On Sunday, Abdullah said fighting extremism was "our fight as Muslims against those who aim to turn our societies and future generations towards fanaticism and extremism".

Jordan says it has taken in 1.4 million Syrians fleeing the war there since it broke out in 2011, but the UNHCR puts the figure at 600,000.

At least 250,000 people have died in more than four years of conflict in Syria.

Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given approval for the sale of hundreds of homes still to be built in an east Jerusalem settlement, an official said Tuesday.

“The prime minister approved the units," he told AFP, confirming media reports that Netanyahu had authorised Monday putting 436 units in Ramat Shlomo and another 18 in Ramot on the market.

In 2010, Israel announced plans to build 1,600 settler homes in Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood in mainly Arab east Jerusalem. The announcement came as US Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Israel, provoking fierce American opposition and souring relations with Washington for months.

The plans were frozen to lower tensions, but in May this year 900 units were re-approved after a new intersection providing access to the neighbourhood was opened.

Israeli NGO Ir Amim, which opposes settlement construction, noted that following Monday's decision "no new tender has been published" but warned that while Netanyahu's "announcement has only declaratory significance, procedural steps to advance the plan could be taken at any time."

The official did not say why Netanyahu had made this announcement while no tenders for construction have even been published.

Israel seized east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed the mainly Arab area, in a move never recognised by the international community.

Today, some 200,000 Israelis live in 15 settlement neighbourhoods in east Jerusalem alongside a Palestinian population of 310,000.

The Palestinians want the eastern sector of the city as the capital of their promised state, and vigorously oppose any attempt to extend Israeli control.

The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed that "in any conceivable peace agreement, these areas remain part of Israel and in no way hinder moving forward in peace.”

BEIRUT (AP) — Islamic State militants are stiffening their defenses for a possible assault on their de facto capital Raqqa as international airstrikes intensify on the Syrian city in retaliation for the Paris attacks. The fighters are hiding in civilian neighborhoods and preventing anyone from fleeing, activists said.

Activists from Raqqa say the northern Syrian city's estimated 350,000 residents are gripped by fear, rattled by powerful Russian and French airstrikes that shake the city daily and worried they would be trapped with nowhere to go amid signs of a looming ground invasion by U.S.-allied Kurdish and Arab forces in Syria.

For months, those forces have been advancing gradually toward Raqqa with backing from American-led airstrikes, capturing IS-held towns to the north and east of the city. After IS claimed responsibility for Friday's carnage in Paris that killed at least 129 people, there are calls for even stronger action in Syria.

Iraqi intelligence officials this week told The Associated Press that the operation was planned in Raqqa, where the attackers were trained specifically for this operation with the intention of sending them to France. The attacks came soon after IS claimed the downing of a Russian plane in Egypt and deadly suicide bombings in Lebanon and Turkey.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday suggested Raqqa would be the new focus.

"My sense is that everybody understands that with Lebanon's attacks, with what's happened in Egypt, with Ankara, Turkey, with the attacks now in Paris, we have to step up our efforts to hit them at the core where they're planning these things," he said after his meeting with French President Francois Hollande Tuesday.

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FILE - This undated file image posted on a militant website on Jan. 14, 2014, which has been verifie …

But the extremists are digging in to make any potential assault as grueling as possible. The city, which they have held since early 2014, lies on the Euphrates River at an intersection of major routes from all directions, most through agricultural areas crisscrossed by canals and tributaries of the river. The closest forces from the U.S.-backed Kurdish-Arab coalition called the Democratic Forces of Syria are 50 kilometers (30 miles) to the north in the town of Ein Issa.

Activists say the militants have been stepping up defenses of Raqqa since late October, after the Democratic Forces launched their campaign vowing to retake the city. Shortly afterward, IS banned people leaving the city and activists said it has stepped up enforcement of the ban in the past few days, leading to fears the group intends to use civilians as human shields in future fighting.

To avoid being hit in their bases, the fighters have moved into residential neighborhoods in empty homes abandoned by people who fled Raqqa earlier, said an activist from Raqqa. He spoke on condition he be identified only by the name he uses in his political activism, Khaled, for security reasons.

"There is major fear in the city, especially with Daesh preventing civilians from leaving the city," Khaled said, using the Arabic acronnym for the group.

Khaled, who now lives in Turkey, is in touch with Raqqa residents. Raqqa residents could not be reached because of an IS ban on private internet access across Raqqa.

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FILE - This undated file photo posted on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014 by the Raqqa Media Center of the I …

Among new measures that have been put in place by IS, according to several activists: It has ordered its fighters to move only in alleys and side streets to avoid detection from the air and not to use vehicles at night.

Those measures have intensified after a series of successful hits by the coalition that killed a number of IS leaders, including the Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John" who appeared in several videos depicting the beheadings of U.S. and Western hostages.

On the roads leading into Raqqa, the extremists have dug extensive tunnels and trenches, said another activist from Raqqa, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of IS retaliation. More recently, the militants placed tires filled with fuel on empty barrels around the city, with plans to ignite them in case of an attack to cloud the skies with smoke.

The attacks on Raqqa since the Paris attacks include:

— Nov. 14: Russian airstrikes that activists say struck central Raqqa near the Grand Mosque and the museum building that killed up to 13 civilians in addition to a number of IS militants.

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This photo made from footage taken from Russian Defense Ministry official website Tuesday, Nov. 17, …

— Nov. 15: France's Defense Ministry said 12 aircraft dropped a total of 20 bombs Sunday night in the biggest air strikes since France extended its bombing campaign against the extremist group to Syria in September.

— Nov. 16-17: French jets bombed a jihadi training camp and munitions dump in Raqqa.

— Nov. 17: Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russian bombers hit Islamic State positions in Raqqa and Deir el-Zour, to the southeast. Russian warplanes also fired cruise missiles on militant positions in Syria's Idlib and Aleppo provinces. French warplanes also carried out new strikes in the evening.

Last week's capture by Kurdish forces of the Iraqi town of Sinjar near the Syrian border cut off one main route connecting Raqqa to IS holdings in Iraq, making movement of fighters and supplies more difficult. On the Syrian side, fighters of the Democratic Forces have been on offensive for the past two weeks in Hassakeh province, northeast of Raqqa. Last week they seized the Syrian town of Hol from IS, further crimping its supply lines.

Those forces are now marching south toward the town of Shaddadeh, an IS stronghold 150 kilometers (90 miles) east across the desert from Raqqa, Kurdish activist Mustafa Bali said. Once that is taken, they will head east toward Raqqa through the Abdul-Aziz Mountain, as well as from Ein Issa and Soureen to the north and and northwest of Raqqa.

He said liberating Raqqa would be a major blow and "mark the beginning of the end of Daesh in Syria," and he called for greater international support for the Kurdish-Arab coalition. But a campaign on Raqqa by the under-armed forces would be costly, even with an intensified air campaign, he said.

"I believe it is going to be a major and long war."

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Follow Zeina Karam at http://twitter.com/zkaram and Bassem Mroue on http://twitter.com/bmroue

Beirut (AFP) - French and Russian air strikes in northern Syria have killed at least 33 jihadists with the Islamic State group in the last 72 hours, a monitoring group said on Wednesday.

Dozens of IS fighters were also wounded in the raids on weapons depots, barracks and checkpoints in the jihadists' de facto Syrian capital of Raqa, said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

France intensified strikes on Raqa following last week's attacks in Paris that left 129 dead, with warplanes carrying out dozens of raids on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Russia also pounded Raqa with long-range bombers and sea-launched missiles on Tuesday, after Moscow confirmed that a bomb attack brought down a Russian passenger jet over Egypt last month, killing all 224 people on board.

"The limited number of deaths can be explained by the fact that the jihadists had taken precautions," said Abdel Rahman, who relies on a network of activists, medics and other sources inside Syria.

"There were only guards around the depots and barracks and most of those killed were at the checkpoints," he said.

He said many families of foreign fighters had also left the city for Mosul in Iraq, another stronghold of IS, which has seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq.