They're easy to drive and hard to stop, can be made on a farm and destroy a city block: the Islamic State group's monstrous truck bombs are reshaping the battlefield.

The jihadists used about 30 explosives-rigged vehicles in the Iraqi city of Ramadi this month, blasting their way through positions government and allied fighters had managed to hold for more than a year.

With most of its natural and mineral resources having fallen under rebel control, Syrian state revenues have shrunk, leaving the government dependent on unstable sources of income for its survival.

Four years of conflict have decimated the state coffers.

Several youth from the northeastern border town of Arsal allegedly headed to its outskirts to join jihadists despite the heavy deployment of the Lebanese army in the village.

Concerned sources informed As Safir newspaper Friday that during the past two days at least ten youth from Arsal headed to its outskirts to join the ranks of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Qaida-affiliate al-Nusra Front.

A Kenyan man pleaded guilty to supporting three different terrorist organizations Thursday, admitting to providing money and recruits in Syria and Somalia, the U.S. Justice Department said.  

The suspect, 27-year-old Mohamed Hussein Said, is accused of providing material support to "foreign terrorist organizations," according to a statement from the Justice Department. 

A rebel coalition led by al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate edged into the last remaining government-held city in the northwest province of Idlib on Thursday, a monitoring group said.

The lightning offensive saw the Army of Conquest, or Jaish al-Fatah in Arabic, enter outer districts of Ariha within a matter of hours, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP.

A man claiming to be the former head of ex-Soviet Tajikistan's special forces police division appeared in a video Wednesday saying he has joined the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria. 

The man resembling Colonel Gulmurod Halimov, 40, who sparked panic after failing to report for duty in late April, says in the footage that he was driven to join the group by the impoverished state's perceived anti-Islamic policies.

A senior Iranian official Thursday rejected the idea of ​​a Syria no-fly zone, which Turkey wants, saying it would be "a mistake" and would not restore security to the region.

"Talk of the establishment of a buffer and no-fly zone is the repetition of previous mistakes and will not help with security and stability in the region," deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said.

Al-Qaida's Syria franchise is striving to reinvent itself as a legitimate opposition force that is more acceptable to the West, but it is unlikely to succeed, analysts said Thursday.

In a rare television interview, al-Nusra Front chief Abu Mohamed al-Jolani vowed not to use Syria as a springboard to attack the West and said he would be willing to protect minorities.

The army deployed heavily on Thursday in the restive northeastern border town of Arsal and stepped its security measures, a move that was welcomed by the anxious residents.

Units from the army's Eighth Brigade “entered Arsal from Wadi Hmayyed and al-Masyadeh,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul is blaming his own party for the rise of the Islamic State group.

The senator from Kentucky said Wednesday that the Republicans' foreign policy hawks "created these people." That assertion led potential 2016 rival Bobby Jindal, Louisiana's governor, to say Paul was unqualified to be president.