An activist reported on Thursday that the Islamic State has abducted more than 250 Assyrian Christians in northeastern Syria in the past three days. The abductions, which began on Monday, have forced thousands of villagers in a cluster of 11 villages to flee.
ISIL has abducted many of the Assyrians near a cluster of villages near the Tal Tamr region. On Monday, an estimated 70 Assyrian Christians were allegedly abducted. For the past few days ISIL has continued to invade the surrounding villages and continually kidnap civilians. The Assyrian Network for Human Rights in Syria documented at least 250 Christians who were abducted, while another activist group, called the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported that some 220 were kidnapped. Among those kidnapped are women and children.
Some activists believe that the Islamic State will execute the large group of Christians as they did the 21 Egyptian Christians. The Islamic State recently posted a video that showed the Egyptian Christians being beheaded by IS militants in Libya. Most of the captives were young men from Egypt who came to Libya for work.
The Islamic State began attacking the cluster of villages on Monday in order to create another front and relieve pressure. The Kurdish forces, with the help of a U.S. led air strike coalition, have been advancing against the IS forces near the Syrian and Turkish border. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the Kurdish militia regained 70 villages previously controlled by the Islamic State.
Thousands of Assyrian families were forced to flee the past week as a result of the IS front near Tal Tamr. The Assyrians are caught in the middle of the civil war in Syria; both the Islamic State and the Syrian military attack the minority group. As a result of the civil war, millions of refugees from Syria remain displaced and lack food, shelter, and water.
