BEIRUT: The Islamic State group has abducted 230 civilians, including at least 60 Christians, in a central Syrian town hours after it captured it, a monitoring group said on Friday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the civilians were taken on Thursday in the town of Al-Qaryatain, which IS jihadists had captured.
“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 the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate in Damascus, told newsmen 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.
According to Abdel Rahman, many of the Christians had fled from the northern province of Aleppo to seek refuge in Al-Qaryatain. He said that 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 said. 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 the Qalamun area.
IS kidnaps 230 civilians in central Syria: Monitor
