Syria: On 25 September 2014 Islamic State militants seized and set fire to Lafarge s cement plant in northern Syria.

"While advancing on the Kurdish town of Ain al-Arab near the Turkish border, the militants seized the Lafarge cement plant and burnt down part of it," said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The plant had been closed recently as security could not be guaranteed in the area. Islamic State jihadists had taken over a major city in that part of northern Syria, sparking tens of thousands of mainly Kurdish refugees to flee into nearby Turkey. Once guarded by the Syrian army, responsibility for the plant s security was turned over to the main Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in August 2013.