Jihadists from the Islamic State group have kidnapped at least 90 Assyrian Christians in northeast Syria, after overrunning two villages, a monitor said Tuesday.
The abductions appeared to be the first time the group has kidnapped Christians en masse in Syria, though the jihadists have taken thousands of prisoners as they have advanced in the country and neighbouring Iraq.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said IS kidnapped the 90 Assyrians on Monday after seizing two villages in Hassakeh province.
The group had no immediate details on those kidnapped, including whether women and children were among them, or where they were being held.
There were just 30,000 Assyrians in Syria before the country’s conflict erupted in March 2011, with most of them living throughout Hassakeh province.
They represent a tiny percentage of the country’s overall Christian population, which numbered around 1.2 million people before the war.
The 90 Assyrians were kidnapped after IS fighters overran the villages of Tal Shamiram and Tal Hermuz, which had been under the control of Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) fighters.
Fierce clashes broke out on Monday between IS and YPG forces for control of the two villages as well as the nearby town of Tal Tamr, which remains under Kurdish control.
After the clashes, IS forces set fire to part of a church near Tal Tamr, before installing some of their fighters in the remains of the building, the Syrian Revolution General Commission activist network reported.
The US-led coalition fighting IS, which has backed Kurdish forces battling the group, then bombed the building on Monday, destroying it and killing IS forces inside, the SRGC said.
Control of Hassakeh province is largely divided between Kurdish forces, who in some places patrol with regime troops, and IS fighters.
YPG fighters have since last week been advancing in the province, expanding on their gains further west in Raqa and Aleppo provinces.
Since recapturing the strategic border town of Kobane in Aleppo from IS fighters on January 26, YPG forces have taken dozens of nearby villages.
They have also seized 19 villages from IS in Raqa, where the jihadist group has its de facto capital, and another 30 villages and hamlets in Hassakeh.
The Kurdish advances have been aided by the US-led air strikes, including a series in Hassakeh on Monday that killed at least 14 IS fighters, the Observatory said.
- Christian churches destroyed -
The mass IS abduction of Assyrians appeared to be the first of its kind in Syria, but the group has become infamous for its abuses, including the mass kidnapping of minority Kurdish Yazidis in Iraq.
It also abducted dozens of Kurdish students in Syria last year, freeing them only after months in captivity.
The group has destroyed Christian shrines and churches in the territory it controls in Syria and Iraq, and demanded a tax known as jizya from Christians who remain in its self-declared Islamic “caliphate”.
It regularly refers to Christians as “crusaders,” and has carried out brutal executions of foreigners held hostage in Syria.
Last week, the group’s Libyan branch released a video showing the gruesome beheading of 21 mostly Egyptian Coptic Christians.
Those killings prompted “extreme sadness” from Pope Francis, who has frequently warned of the plight of the dwindling number of Christians in the Middle East. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Lord into your hands I commit these ur Children, safe them from the hands of those evil men called ISIS in Jesus name amen.
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