A Syrian air force raid killed at least 59 civilians at a market in a town held by Islamic State militants in northern Syria on Saturday, according to a monitoring group.
A Syriac Catholic monk and a church volunteer were abducted by masked militants from a monastery in Homs province yesterday, a human rights monitor reports.
Islamic State militants said they had taken full control of the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on Sunday in the biggest defeat for theBaghdad government since last summer.
American special operations forces killed a senior Islamic State leader in a raid in Syria, U.S. officials said on Saturday, an operation that marked a departure from Washington's strategy of relying primarily on air strikes to target militants there.
Women and girls taken captive and used as sex slaves by Islamic State militants are now having secret abortions and vaginal surgery to avoid being ostracised by their own communities, reports suggest.