IS forces pushed back BEIRUT: A Syrian rebel alliance has pushed Islamic State group jihadists further away from one of its key supply routes from neighbouring Turkey, a monitoring group said on Saturday.  The Islamist rebels ousted IS from the village of Al-Bal, which it captured on Tuesday, threatening the Bab al-Salama border crossing, just 10 km away, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The village’s recapture late Friday came after heavy fighting which killed 14 rebels and 15 IS jihadists, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said. Further south, the two sides battled for the town of Marea, which lies on the road between the crossing and the rebel-held eastern sector of the main northern city of Aleppo. Activists said rebels were fighting to defend Marea, while simultaneously launching their own attacks on IS positions. — AFP Woman kills daughter ISTANBUL: A Turkish mother, 36, shot dead her daughter, 17, after finding out that she was three months pregnant, media reports said on Saturday. The mother, named Emine A, found out that her daughter Meryem A was pregnant during a visit to neighbours, the Hurriyet daily reported. She then went back home to find a gun and returned to shoot her daughter five times, it said. Bystanders outside the apartment block in Selcuk district of the southern city of Nigde rushed her to  hospital but she died on the way. The mother was detained by police. — AFP Air strike claims 20   ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military said it killed 20 militants on Saturday in air strikes on a tribal region near the Afghan border. The attack took place near the Datta Khel area in North Waziristan tribal region. “At least 20 terrorists were killed in aerial strikes,” the military said in a statement, without giving the identity of those killed or who they fought for. No militant group said it had been hit, but the area is a stronghold of both the Taliban and foreign militants linked to Al-Qaeda. — AFP Two girls poisoned BEIJING: China’s official news agency said a 12-year-old boy is the prime suspect in the fatal poisoning of two sisters, in another tragedy that raises concerns over the well-being of rural Chinese children. Xinhua News Agency said the boy told police that the girls, aged 8 and 14, drank cola that he had laced with poison in the central province of Hunan. Xinhua said the girls died on Wednesday. It said Saturday that the suspect was familiar with the victims, but did not identify him. — AP