230 abducted by ISIS in new captured town of Homs

Rasa - The so-called “Islamic State” terrorists have abducted dozens of people, many Christian, from a Syrian town captured on Thursday reports say.

News ID: 3095

Date: 09 August 2015 - 09:28

RNA - ISIS terrorists have reportedly captured at least 230 people including 60 Syrian Christians after taking a town in the province of Homs.

They were seized when the terrorists swept through al-Qaryatain in Homs province, monitoring groups say.

Many of the Christians had fled to al-Qaryatain to escape fighting in Aleppo province to the north.

ISIS has treated Christians harshly in other places under its control.The group follows its own extreme version of Sunni Islam and has previously ordered Christians to convert, pay jizya (a religious levy), or face death.

According to the so-called UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), at least 230 people were seized by ISIS fighters in al-Qaryatain.

Some were taken from inside a church, SOHR said. It said ISIS was hunting down a list of people it suspected of "collaborating with the Syrian government ".

The Assyrian Federation of Sweden, whose members have relatives in the town, said about 100 families were being held.

The federation says it has not been able to contact anyone inside the town and the conditions of the captives are not known.

The SOHR said "at least 60" Christians were among those being held.

Earlier this year, dozens of Assyrian Christians were abducted by ISIS militants in attacks on villages in Hassakeh province in north-east Syria.

A local Christian militia said it believed the captives were taken away to a mountain, but their fate since then is unclear.

Al Quaryatayn was taken overnight after heavy fighting between IS and Syrian army fighters, which involved several suicide bombing attacks on military checkpoints. The town occupies a strategic position near a road connecting Palmyra to the Qalamoun Mountains, along the border with Lebanon.

The terrorist group is known to demand people convert to Islam or face execution or expulsion.

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