France has issued international arrest warrants for three top Syrian security chiefs for alleged collusion in war crimes, according to legal and judicial sources.

Among those targeted is Ali Mamlouk, Syria's security chief and among President Bashar al-Assad's most senior advisers.

The other high-ranking officials sought are Jamil Hassan, head of the Syrian air force's intelligence agency, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, in charge of the air force intelligence's investigative branch at the Mezzeh military airport in Damascus.

The warrants - which cite charges including collusion in torture, forced disappearances, crimes against humanity and war crimes - were issued on October 8 but made public only on Monday, according to the International Federation for Human Rights advocacy group (FIDH).

They stem from a long-running case involving two French-Syrian nationals who were arrested in Syria in November 2013 and had disappeared after being taken to the Mezzeh Investigative Branch in Damascus, run by Mahmoud.