The Latest: Prime Minister says Britain won't target Syrian President

BEIRUT (AP) — The latest developments regarding the war in Syria. All times local.

3:05 p.m.

Prime Minister David Cameron says Britain will not take military action to get rid of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Cameron told lawmakers that he wants Royal Air Force airstrikes to target the Islamic State group, and "we are not taking or proposing to take military action to achieve regime change in Syria."

That's a change since 2013, when Britain's Parliament rejected a government proposal to attack Assad's forces.

Cameron now wants lawmakers to approve airstrikes against IS militants in Syria. He is laying out his case in the House of Commons before deciding whether to call a vote.

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2:50 p.m.

Syrian activists say there have been fresh airstrikes in northern Syria, near the Turkish border.

Two groups that track the war — the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees — say the airstrikes hit the highway linking the border town of Azaz with the Bab al-Salameh border crossing with Turkey.

They had no immediate word on casualties. The Observatory says the warplanes that carried out Thursday's airstrikes were Russian.

Similar airstrikes on Wednesday killed seven and wounded 10 people in the same area, according to Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency.

The Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, the main Syrian opposition group, condemned the bombing of Azaz, saying it targeted trucks carrying aid.

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2:20 p.m.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out at Russia, accusing it of using its fight against the Islamic State group in Syria as a pretext to target opposition groups in a bid to strengthen Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Without naming Russia openly, Erdogan on Thursday also challenged the country to prove its accusation that Turkey is buying oil and gas from the IS group, and called the claims "shameful."

Erdogan said Turkey was the country leading the most serious fight against the IS group, saying it had detained thousands of militants over the past few years.

The Turkish president said Turkey had not specifically targeted Russia when it shot down the plane, saying it was "an automatic response" in line with its rules of engagement. Erdogan said: "faced with the same violation today, Turkey would give the same response."

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1:55 p.m.

British Prime Minister David Cameron says airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria won't raise the risk of an attack in Britain, because the U.K. "is already in the top tier of countries" the militants are targeting.

Cameron on Thursday is trying to persuade British lawmakers to back expanding Royal Air Force strikes against IS from Iraq into Syria.

He said France and the United States want Britain to join and the country "must not shirk our responsibility for security or hand it to others."

Cameron wants to hold a vote in Parliament on airstrikes, but said he would only do so if "there is a clear majority for action, because we will not hand a publicity coup" to IS.

He's likely to decide after Thursday's Commons debate whether to hold a vote next week.

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1:35 p.m.

A Hezbollah TV station says a joint operation by the Lebanese militant group and Syrian security agents killed an Islamic State figure suspected of involvement in Beirut's deadly bombing earlier this month.

AL-Manar TV says Abdul-Salam Hendawi, also known as Abu Abdo, died in an ambush in an IS-held area in Syria's central province of Homs.

It says Hendawi was responsible for bringing into Lebanon two suicide bombers who carried out the Nov. 12 attack in southern Beirut. The attack killed 43 people and wounded more than 200.

Thursday's report did not say when the ambush on Hendawi took place. It added that his main job was to transport suicide attackers from the northern Syrian city of Raqqa into Lebanon.

The Islamic State group did not immediately confirm Hendawi's death.

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1:25 p.m.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Turkey still has not apologized for the downing of a Russian warplane or given assurances that "the culprits of this crime" will be punished.

Previously warm relations between the two countries have soured after Turkey on Tuesday shot down a Russian Su-24 on a bombing mission near the Syria border.

Speaking at the Kremlin on Thursday, Putin complained that he has not received an apology from Turkey nor an offer "to make up for the damages." Russia previously insisted that its plane never violated the Turkish airspace as Turkey claimed.

He said he regretted the fact that relations between Turkey and Russia have been driven into a stalemate.

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