Suicide bombers stormed Qaryatain, paving the way for overnight clashes resulting in IS jihadists finally overwhelming al-Assad regime soldiers on Wednesday morning. Capture of the town allows IS to unify several key areas under its control. Qaryatain is home to 40,000 people - many of them members of Syria's ancient Christian community. It is the site of towering Roman ruins, and is located some 50 miles from the al-Assad regime-held city of Homs. When the terrorists took full control they released a series of gloating images of militants posing with captured tanks on affiliated Facebook pages. As well as Sunni Muslims and Christians the town has thousands of internally displaced people who had fled from Homs. This Syrian news comes as a Kurdish official reported that IS executed 19 women for refusing to have sex with its fighters in Iraq. He claimed the women were being held hostage in Mosul.