Christian Militia

Kurdish militia pressed a big offensive against Islamic State in northeast Syria on Wednesday, cutting one of its supply lines from Iraq, as fears mounted for dozens of Christians abducted by the hardline group that recently beheaded 21 Egyptian Copts.

Thousands of foreigners have flocked to Iraq and Syria in the past two years, mostly to join Islamic State, but a handful of idealistic Westerners are enlisting as well, citing frustration their governments are not doing more to combat the ultra-radical Islamists or prevent the suffering of innocents.

In the early hours of Monday morning, a Christian militia swept down on the village of Ardo-Djobi near Bambari in the Central African Republic killing 18 Muslims of the Fulani ethnicity. Just a few days earlier, Muslim gunmen had attacked Christians in the nearby village of Liwa and killed 21.

Muslim rebels stormed a Catholic church compound in the capital of Central African Republic on Wednesday, killing as many as 30 people in a hail of gunfire and grenades, witnesses said.

At least 28 people have been killed in Central African Republic during several days of fighting between Muslim and Christian militias in a town in the centre of the war-torn country, a priest and a former member of parliament told Reuters on Monday.

Kurdish militia pressed a big offensive against Islamic State in northeast Syria on Wednesday, cutting one of its supply lines from Iraq, as fears mounted for dozens of Christians abducted by the hardline group that recently beheaded 21 Egyptian Copts.

Thousands of foreigners have flocked to Iraq and Syria in the past two years, mostly to join Islamic State, but a handful of idealistic Westerners are enlisting as well, citing frustration their governments are not doing more to combat the ultra-radical Islamists or prevent the suffering of innocents.

In the early hours of Monday morning, a Christian militia swept down on the village of Ardo-Djobi near Bambari in the Central African Republic killing 18 Muslims of the Fulani ethnicity. Just a few days earlier, Muslim gunmen had attacked Christians in the nearby village of Liwa and killed 21.

Muslim rebels stormed a Catholic church compound in the capital of Central African Republic on Wednesday, killing as many as 30 people in a hail of gunfire and grenades, witnesses said.

At least 28 people have been killed in Central African Republic during several days of fighting between Muslim and Christian militias in a town in the centre of the war-torn country, a priest and a former member of parliament told Reuters on Monday.