Reports that Islamic State militants have massacred 175 captured workers from a cement plant near Damascus have been withdrawn.
The news agency, Reuters, this morning quoted the Syrian military as suggesting the plant workers had been killed by the militants.
But minutes later the agency withdrew the report.
The workers were captured at the Al Badia Cement company, near the town of Dumeir, 30 miles northeast of the capital Damascus.
Contact has been lost with the employees, and it is not known what has happened to them, said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It took place in the same area where IS militants launched an assault on Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s forces on Tuesday night.
They reportedly captured much of Dumeir, including its military airport and power station.