IS overruns town in central Syria

Islamic State group jihadists seize a small town in Syria’s central Homs province with help from local rebels, and advance on a majority Christian village, a monitoring group says.

“The Islamic State group easily took control of the village of Maheen, southeast of Homs, after two suicide attacks,” says Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Maheen lies 70 kilometers (43 miles) southeast of the government-controlled provincial capital Homs city, and 35 kilometers east of the Syrian-Lebanese border.

For the past two years, a ceasefire between rebel factions in the town and regime troops at surrounding checkpoints had governed Maheen. But on Sunday the rebel factions turned against the government fighters and joined ranks with IS jihadists, Abdel Rahman says.

IS launches its assault from the nearby Christian village of Al-Qaryatain, which it seized in August, he adds.

— AFP