Mortar shells claim 4 victims in Damascus

At least four people were killed and 34 others were injured when mortar shells hit central Damascus, the Syrian state media said on Thursday. 

The official news agency, SANA, said that mortar shells struck in the capital's Abbasiyyin and Zeblatani region resulting in the fatalities and 34 injured. 

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

In more news that was reported by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Islamic State fighters seized a key gas (IS) field in central Syria on Thursday morning killing 23 guards, 

IS fighters attacked the Shaar gas field in an area which is east of the archaeological site of Palmyra.

Palmyra itself has largely remained a government strong hold in the vast largely desert dominated central and eastern Syria.

"The fate of 340 National Defence Force (paramilitary) members, guards, engineers and employees who were in the field, is unknown, as they were either taken prisoner, wounded or captured during the operation," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

The operation, he added, was IS' "most important so far against the government" of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

More than 100,000 people have been killed during the ongoing three-year conflict in Syria, which has also internally displaced more than 6.5 million people, according to the UN. Over two million Syrians are now registered as refugees in neighbouring Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.