DHAKA: About 100 soldiers, guards and employees have been killed as jihadis seized a gas field in central Syria, activists say.

Militants from the Islamic State group attacked army checkpoints and seized the Shaer gas field in the desert region of Palmyra, according to Beibares Tellawi, an activist in the central province of Homs, reports Belfast Telegraph.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 115 people were killed. The Syrian government has not commented and an official in Homs said he had no information on the incident.

The Observatory and Mr Tellawi said the field fell to the militants last night after a day of clashes.

The Islamic State group has already captured much of the oil-rich eastern province of Deir el-Zour.

BDST: 1936 HRS, JUL 18, 2014