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Dozens of people are reported missing in the wake of an attack by the so-called Islamic State (IS) on a cement factory east of Damascus.

Workers were reportedly taken from a dormitory where they were staying on the outskirts of the town of Dumeir. A factory administrator said no-one had been able to contact the workers since the assault on Monday.

The area around Dumeir has seen fierce fighting between government forces and IS in recent days. The workers were employed at the Badiyah factory, just outside Dumeir, about 25 miles (40km) from the capital.

There are conflicting reports as to the number of those who are missing. UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said “dozens” of staff were believed to have been taken by IS to an unknown location. The factory administrator put the number at 250, while rebel sources said it did not exceed 200.

A local resident told AFP news agency: “We haven’t been able to reach our family members since noon on Monday after an attack by Daesh [IS] on the factory. “We have no information about where they are,” they added.

Efforts are under way to secure the workers’ release, with indirect contacts said to have been made.

Earlier this week IS said it had launched several attacks around north-east Damascus, including Tishrin power station and Dumeir military airport. A Syrian military source told Reuters there had been attacks but all of the militants who took part in them had been killed.

It comes almost two weeks after Syrian and allied forces recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra from IS, in what was seen as a significant loss to the militant group, which had held the city since last May.

Cyprus has agreed to extradite to Egypt the man accused of hijacking an airliner last week, reports say.

Seif al-Din Mustafa, 58, used a fake suicide belt to hijack the EgyptAir flight and forced it to fly to Larnaca. He has been held in Cyprus and the extradition process is expected to be fast-tracked, AFP reported.

Mr Mustafa has been described as being mentally disturbed and can be charged with air piracy, kidnapping and threatening behaviour.

According to Cypriot police, the suspect gave a voluntary statement admitting to the hijacking, the news agency added. The incident is believed to have been motivated by a row between Mr Mustafa and his ex-wife, who lives in Cyprus. Egypt had asked Cyprus to hand him over under a 1996 bilateral extradition treaty.

EgyptAir flight MS181 was carrying 56 passengers from Alexandria to Cairo, along with six crew and a security official, when it was diverted to Cyprus. The drama ended with all passengers released unhurt at Larnaca airport and the man giving himself up after a six-hour stand-off.

A new study suggests there is a growing market in the illegal trade of guns and weapons in Libya via social media sites, in particular Facebook.

The report covered 18 months and found sales of a wide range of items – from handguns to rocket-propelled grenades. Most were offered for sale on “closed” or “secret” Facebook groups.

The illicit sale of guns is a violation of Facebook’s terms of service, and a spokesperson said they encourage people to report any such postings.

The report was commissioned by the Small Arms Survey, and used data collected by Armament Research Services (ARES) on a total of 1,346 sales. Researchers believe this is just a fraction of the full trade taking place on social media. The study will be released on Thursday.

Col Gaddafi was an obsessive buyer of weapons and tightly controlled the market. During his 40 years in power, it is estimated he spent more than $30bn (£20bn) on arms. When rebel forces toppled his regime in 2011, the stockpiles were thrown open and a large black market emerged. Researchers believe the trade on social media began to take off in 2013, and is still growing. They looked at the trade of small arms and light weapons across sites, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram, and found the largest volume of sales on Facebook.

The majority of weapons being traded were handguns or rifles. The most popular rifle was the Kalashnikov, which sells – they found – on average for 1,800 Libyan dinars ($1,300; £930).

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A Singaporean man has been extradited to the US to face charges of illegally exporting US technology allegedly used in explosive devices in Iraq.

Lim Yong Nam is indicted for allegedly sending thousands of radio parts to Iran in violation of a trade ban. The parts were allegedly sent from there to Shia militias in Iraq.

Mr Lim, also known as Steven Lim, had been detained in Indonesia for the last 18 months. He was indicted in 2010 for smuggling and making false statements. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges in a Washington court. Mr Lim told US officials he was unaware of restrictions on US exports to Iran.

The US says that 16 of his radio parts were found inside improvised explosive devices (IED) in Iraq. IEDs have accounted for most of the casualties among US soldiers serving there.

Mr Lim, 42, and several other defendants are accused of buying thousands of radio frequency modules from an unnamed Minnesota company and then lying to the US government by saying that Singapore was the intended destination of the goods.

The indictment describes IEDs as the biggest threat to US troops in Iraq and says they were responsible for about 60% of American combat casualties in that country between 2001 and 2007. Prosecutors say that the modules were exported to Iran through Singapore. “The illegal export of restricted US technology is extremely harmful to our national security,” FBI Executive Assistant Director Michael Steinbach said in a statement accompanying the indictment. “In this case the technology had lethal applications and was used in improvised explosive devices in Iraq, which endangered US and coalition forces.”

State media in Syria have accused militants from so-called Islamic State (IS) of using mustard gas against government forces in the north-east.

Troops came under fire at an air base which IS has been trying to capture in Deir al-Zour, they say. Meanwhile, rebels have shot down a Syrian fighter plane over the province of Aleppo.

Unconfirmed reports say militants from Nusra Front have captured one of the crew alive.

Reuters news agency cites monitoring and rebel sources as saying the pilot was taken by the al-Qaeda-linked group after the plane crashed in countryside. Syrian state TV said the plane had been shot down by a surface-to-air missile and a rescue operation was under way. It did not say whether the pilot had been captured.

Reporting on Monday night, the Syrian state news agency Sana said, “Daesh [IS] terrorists attacked Deir al-Zour military airport with rockets carrying mustard gas, causing some people to suffocate.” Large parts of Deir al-Zour city containing about 200,000 people have been besieged by IS for months. Earlier this year the UN started dropping aid to civilians trapped in government-held areas.

The air base, south of the city, is the government’s last strategic asset in the province, which is mostly under IS control.

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