Islamic State beheads 2 women in Syria, monitor group says

CAIRO — Islamic State militants beheaded two women on charges of “sorcery” in a northeastern province of Syria, a monitoring group reported Tuesday, in what it said marked the Sunni extremist group’s first decapitations of female civilians.

The report by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition watchdog with a network of activists in Syria, could not be independently verified, but a pro-opposition media group based in the province where the killings allegedly took place confirmed the information.

The Sunni militant group has carried out many highly publicized beheadings of male captives, including American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as aid workers and Coptic Christians.

In another development Tuesday, Islamic State fighters launched a surprise attack on a Syrian border town recently seized by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces.