Pakistan intensified its crackdown against Islamist militants on Thursday, with the government announcing it had taken control of 182 religious schools and detained more than 100 people as part of its push against banned groups.

Militants ambushed a convoy of pro-government, Shi’ite Muslim paramilitary fighters in northern Iraq on Wednesday night, killing at least seven of them and wounding 30, Iraqi military and police said on Thursday.

US-backed Kurdish-led forces in northeastern Syria captured 400 ISIL fighters who were trying to escape the armed group’s last enclave in eastern Syria.