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A 19-year-old German woman has become the first female foreign fighter to be killed fighting Islamic State (IS) alongside Kurdish militia groups, the BBC reported.

Ivana Hoffman, whose parents are South African, was killed on 7 March near the north-western Syrian town of Tel Tamr.

She had been fighting with the Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG), their spokesperson confirmed.

Ms Hoffman, a member of Turkey's Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP), joined the YPG six months ago.

A MLKP statement (in Turkish), which referred to her by her fighter name Avasin Tekosin Gunes, declared her to be "immortal."

She is the third foreign fighter to be killed fighting IS militants, following the deaths of a British man and an Australian man earlier this year.

Elsewhere in Syria at least 14 IS militants were killed in US-led coalition air strikes on an oil refinery in northern Syria run by the group.

Three foreign fighters from Saudi Arabia and Egypt were among those killed in the attack on Sunday night, according to activists.

Earlier on Sunday, the coalition reportedly conducted air strikes against the al-Nusra front, an affiliate of al-Qaeda, in the north-western province of Idlib.

In a separate development on Monday, Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq launched a new offensive against IS militants to try to drive them away from positions threatening the northern city of Kirkuk.