(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Islamic State (IS) group kidnapped 230 civilians in central Syria and officials said yesterday it had executed more than 2,000 people in northern Iraq's Mosul region since last year.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the civilians were taken in the town of Al Qaryatain IS jihadists seized late on Wednesday. "Daesh kidnapped at least 230 people, including at least 60 Christians, during a sweep through Al Qaryatain," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said, using another name for IS.
Bishop Matta Al Khoury, Secretary at Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate in Damascus, said he could not confirm what had happened in the town "because it's very hard to reach residents now.
"But we know that when IS entered the town, it forced some people into house arrest... to use them as human shields" against regime air strikes, Al Khoury said.
Abdel Rahman said many Christians had fled the northern province of Aleppo to seek refuge in Al Qaryatain and those abducted were wanted by IS for "collaborating with the regime," and their names were on a list used by the jihadists as they swept through the town. Families who tried to flee or hide were tracked down and taken by the jihadists, he added.
Al Khoury urged IS to allow residents who want to leave the town to depart. Al Qaryatain lies at the crossroads between IS territory in the eastern countryside of Homs and areas further west in Qalamun. It had a pre-war population of 18,000, including Sunnis and around 2,000 Syriac Catholics and Orthodox Christians. According to a Syrian Christian who lives in Damascus but is originally from Al Qaryatain, the town's Christian population had dropped to 300. But by Thursday night, Al Khoury said, there were 180 left.
Amnesty International condemned the abductions as highlighting "the dreadful plight of civilians caught up" in the more than four-year-old Syrian conflict that has cost over 240,000 lives.
Sources said a list of 2,070 names had been handed to the health ministry, demanding death certificates be issued. The list includes policemen, ex-army officers, officials, lawyers, journalists, doctors, rights activists and women.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.