A top figure in Islamic State’s self-declared police force, which has carried out beheadings, was himself found decapitated in eastern Syria, a monitoring group said.

The Islamic State militant group has killed 1,878 people in Syria during the past six months, the majority of them civilians, a British-based Syrian monitoring organisation said.

ARAB League monitors are only giving Syrian authorities more time to crack down on opponents, opposition figures said after the League opted to keep the mission in place despite Syria’s failure to comply fully with an Arab peace plan.

SYRIAN forces killed 111 people ahead of the start of a mission to monitor President Bashar al-Assad’s implementation of an Arab League peace plan, activists claimed.