Activists report up to 285 people taken from Assyrian villages.

Damascus expresses willingness for 6-week trial ceasefire.

Syria's president says his government is receiving messages from the U.S.-led coalition battling the jihadist group, but that there had been no direct co-operation since air strikes began in September.

Further tightens flow of asylum seekers trying to escape war.

The year 2014 was the deadliest year yet in Syria's four-year conflict, with over 76,000 killed, activists say. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 17,790 of the dead were civilians, including 3,501 children.

Rights group said most of the dead were foreign fighters who joined I.S.

Kurdish forces in northern Iraq say they have broken the IS siege of Mount Sinjar, where thousands of Yazidis and other displaced Iraqis have been trapped since August.

Al-Qaeda affiliate takes control of two key army bases.

Rebels have consolidated power in parts of their Sunni Muslim heartland.

Half of those killed were civilians, rights group says.