90 Christians abducted in Syria
Print Edition
ISLAMIC State militants have abducted at least 90 people from Assyrian Christian villages in northeastern Syria, a monitoring group that tracks violence in Syria said yesterday.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants carried out dawn raids on villages inhabited by the ancient minority west of Hasaka, a city mainly held by the Kurds.
Syrian Kurdish militia on Sunday launched two offensives against the militants in northeast Syria, helped by United States-led airstrikes and Iraqi peshmerga.
This part of Syria is strategically important in the fight against IS because it borders territory controlled by the group in Iraq, where it last year committed atrocities against the minority religious Yazidi community.
Many Assyrian Christians have emigrated in the nearly four-year-long conflict in which more than 200,000 have been killed.
Sunday’s offensive reached within 5 kilometers of Tel Hamis, an IS-controlled town southeast of Qamishli, the Observatory said. At least 14 IS fighters died in the attack, which involved Assyrian fighters, and eight civilians were also killed in heavy shelling by the Kurdish side, the monitoring group said.
Military experts following Syria said IS is trying to open a new front to relieve pressure on it after a string of losses since it was driven from Kobani in Syria near the Turkish border.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
