Islamic State group advances in central Syria

The Islamic State terror group is advancing in central Syria, seizing control of a town that lies near a highway leading to the capital, Damascus, and attacking another, activists and the group say.

The capture of Mahin, in the central Homs province, and the push toward the majority-Christian town of Sadad, marks a new advance of the Islamic State group beyond its strongholds in northern and eastern Syria. The militant group had seized control of the ancient city of Palmyra in May as well as a neighboring village.

The new IS expansion comes despite Russian airstrikes in Syria, which, Moscow says, target IS and other terrorist groups. For the most part, the Russian airstrikes, in their fifth week, have targeted Western-backed rebel groups and other Islamist groups.

IS fighters have also made recent gains in Aleppo, seizing villages from other rebel groups and controlling a section of a strategic highway that serves as a supply route into government-controlled areas of Aleppo.

— AP