Islamic State attack kills six pro-Assad regime fighters in Idlib province: SOHR

At least six fighters loyal to Syria's Assad regime were killed on Friday in the latest attack by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, a UK-based war monitor said.

Four Uzbek jihadists were also killed in the attack on the outskirts of Maarat Al-Numan in the northwestern Idlib province, much of which remains outside of regime control, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

After the fall of its self-proclaimed caliphate in March 2019, IS went underground and continues to mount attacks against pro-regime forces across Syria, while in Iraq the group recently killed dozens in a July suicide attack at a Baghdad market.

The war in Syria, which began in 2011 with a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, has left more than half a million people dead and several million displaced.