IS kills 100 foreign fighters trying to flee

The Islamic State group has executed 100 of its own foreign fighters who tried to flee the group's headquarters in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the Financial Times newspaper said on Saturday.

An activist opposed to both the Islamic State group and the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is well-known to the British business broadsheet, said he had "verified 100 executions" of foreign fighters trying to leave the jihadist group's de facto capital.

Islamic State fighters in Raqqa said the group has created military police to clamp down on foreign fighters who do not report for duty. Dozens of homes have been raided and many jihadists have been arrested, the FT reported.

Some jihadists have become disillusioned with the realities of fighting in Syria, reports have said.

According to the British press in October, five Britons, three French, two Germans and two Belgians wanted to return home after complaining that they ended up fighting against other rebel groups rather than Assad's government. They were being held prisoner by the Islamic State group.

A total 30 to 50 Britons want to return but fear they face jail, according to researchers at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization at King's College London, which had been contacted by one of the jihadists speaking on their behalf.

Since a US-led coalition began a campaign of airstrikes against the Islamic State group in August, the extremist group has lost ground to local forces and seen the number of its fighters killed rise significantly.

Apparent setbacks

There have been a string of apparent setbacks for the Islamic State group in recent weeks.

Iraqi Kurds claimed on Thursday to have broken a siege on a mountain where Yazidi civilians and fighters have long been trapped.

The Kurdish advances came during a two-day blitz in the Sinjar region involving 8,000 peshmerga fighters and some of the heaviest airstrikes since a US-led coalition started an air campaign four months ago.

Meanwhile on Thursday, the Pentagon said several Islamic State leaders had been killed in US airstrikes.

About 2,000 air raids on 40 days during October and November killed more than 500 people.