ISIS kidnaps 230 Christian and Muslim men, women and children after storming Syrian town amid fears they are destined for sexual slavery or mass execution
- ISIS fighters have kidnapped 230 people in the town of Qaryatain in Syria
- Captives are Christians and Muslims, including 45 women and 19 children
- Fears ISIS will sell them into sexual slavery or carry out mass executions
- Qaryatain seized this week after suicide bombers hit army checkpoints
Islamic
State militants have kidnapped 230 men, women and children in Syria
sparking fears they are destined for sexual slavery or mass execution.
Jihadis
seized the heavily populated town of Qaryatain - around 50 miles from
the city of Homs - earlier this week after suicide bombers targeted army
checkpoints at the entrance.
Around
230 Christians and Muslims, including 45 women and 19 children, have
been kidnapped and hundreds others are missing, according to the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights.
Terrorists: ISIS jihadis have posted
a series of gloating images of militants posing with captured tanks on
affiliated Facebook pages since capturing the heavily populated Syrian
town of Qaryatain
The
capture of the town in central Syria is the terror group's most
significant advance since seizing the ancient city of Palmyra in May.
Following
intense overnight fighting, the Assad loyalists were overwhelmed -
allowing the terrorists to take full control of Qaryatain and prompting
them to release a series of gloating images of militants posing with
captured tanks on affiliated Facebook pages.
This
morning, Rami Abdurrahman, founder and director of the human rights
observatory, told MailOnline that 230 people had been held captive.
A separate report claimed about 150 Assyrian Christians were among those taken.
Diana
Yaqco, a spokesman for A Demand for Action, a global initiative seeking
protection for for Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs and other
ethnoreligious minorities in the Middle East - said sources had
confirmed that about 300 families had managed to flee the area but about
150 people had been kidnapped.
She told MailOnline: 'The main concern is sexual slavery, mass executions and beheadings.'
Location: The heavily populated town of
Qaryatain lies south west of Palmyra, which is home to towering Roman
ruins, and is located some 50 miles from the Assad regime-held city of
Homs
An Islamic State fighter poses with a tank captured from Syrian regime forces during clashes in Qaryatain
ISIS
is known for its brutal treatment of captives, including executing
those who refuse who refuse to convert to Islam and using women as sex
slaves.
In
a statement, the Syrian Orthodox Archdiocese of Homs, Hama and
Environs, the Christian church based in Homs, wrote: 'ISIS has attacked
Alqaritin (sic) village and took control over it after killing some
members in the Syrian Arab Army.
'ISIS
also took captive all families and began negotiations to free some of
them. About 200 Christian families were released and still 100 families
are still held captive in the houses of the terrorist groups.
'We
received the displaced families in our archdiocese headquarter and gave
them the basic and essential needs because they went out of their
houses without taking anything with them, neither clothes nor
properties; so we are working on providing them clothing, housing and
medication.'
Many Christians had sought refuge in Qaryatain after fleeing from the Aleppo province, in northern Syria.
The
capture of Qaryatain allows ISIS to link up areas under its control in
and around Palmyra with areas in the eastern countryside of Qalamoun in
Damascus province.
Taking control: ISIS fanatics (pictured)
seized the town after three suicide bombers targeted army checkpoints
at the entrance to Qaryatain
Moving in: Following intense overnight fighting, the terrorists were able to take full control of the key town
Qaryatain had a pre-war population of 18,000, including Sunni Muslims and around 2,000 Syriac Catholics and Orthodox Christians.
According
to a Syrian Christian who lives in Damascus but is originally from
Qaryatain, the town's Christian population has dropped to only 300.
In May, masked men abducted Syrian priest Jacques Mourad from the Syriac Catholic Mar Elian monastery in Qaryatain.
Mourad, who was known to help both Christians and Muslims, was preparing aid for an influx of refugees from Palmyra.
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