More than 130 Isis fighters dead in just four days - Human rights observers

More than 130 Islamic State (IS) fighters have been killed in just one province of Syria in the past four days.

Insurgents from the terror group were killed by troops of the Kurdish YPG militia in Hasaka, while US-backed coalition airstrikes have continued to pound IS's positions.

As a result, 70 villages have been wrested from the Islamists' control according to figures released by the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Also killed in the clashes were five members of the YPG militia, including a foreign soldier, it was claimed.

News of the setbacks for IS comes after militants abducted 90 people during dawn raids in Hasaka, last weekend.

IS militants abducted at least 150 Christians from villages in the north-east of Syria. Many of those taken were women and the elderly, according to Reuters.

The province of Hasaka is next to the Iraqi borderlands, where members of the minority Yazidi community were oppressed by IS last year.