IS destroys monastery in Syria

Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria have demolished a Christian monastery in al-Qaryatain town in Homs province.

The militants had also moved Christians taken captive in the town to their stronghold of Raqqa, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group.

IS captured Qaryatain from government forces earlier in August.

Separately, at least four people have died in an Israeli strike on a Syrian-held section of the Golan Heights.

An Israeli defence official told Reuters news agency the four were Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad group.

However, a Syrian army source, quoted on Syrian state TV, said the Israeli strike - on a car near the town of Quneitra - had killed five civilians.

One Syrian soldier was earlier reported killed in an Israeli strike on military positions in the Syrian-held section of the Golan Heights.

Israel says it carried out the strikes in retaliation to rocket attacks on its territory. The rockets set fire to scrubland but did not cause any casualties.

Israel seized most of the Golan Heights from Syria in the closing stages of the 1967 Six-Day War.

Meanwhile in al-Qaryatain, IS militants reportedly used bulldozers to demolish the Mar Elian monastery.

IS has also transferred more than 100 captives - including Christians seized when they overran al-Qaryatain - to its base in Raqqa, according to the SOHR, a UK-based group that monitors the conflict using a network of contacts in Syria.

The captives include Jacques Mourad, a prominent local priest who had been working at the Mar Elian monastery.

IS regards Christians as infidels. The threat of violence and persecution from the militants has forced many Christian communities from their homes in Syria and northern Iraq.

Qaryatain was captured in the militants' first major offensive since May, when they seized the historic town of Palmyra, famed for its Roman-style ruins.

More than 230,000 Syrians have died in the civil war, which began after anti-government protests in March 2011.

Rebel groups that were originally fighting against the government of President Bashar al-Assad have also been battling each other in an increasingly complex and bloody conflict.