36 women, children kidnapped by ISIL last week in Syria

World
Europe

The Islamic State (ISIL) group kidnapped dozens of Druze women and children when it attacked their villages last week in Syria's southern province of Sweida, a monitor said Monday.

More than 250 people were killed on Wednesday when ISIL carried out a string of suicide attacks and shootings in the provincial capital Sweida and villages to the north and east.

"At least 36 Druze women and children were abducted after the attacks," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor.

A member of the Syrian security forces walks past a truck damaged in a suicide attack in the southern Syrian city of Sweida, July 25, 2018. /VCG Photo

Four of the women had since managed to escape and another two had died, said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

Another 17 men from the areas targeted by ISIL were still unaccounted for, but it was unclear if they were also kidnapped, he said.

Both the Observatory and Syrian news outlet Sweida24 said 20 women and 16 children had been kidnapped.

ISIL has not claimed credit for the kidnappings, and no details on them could be found on its propaganda channels.

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows coffins lined up during a mass funeral of victims of suicide attacks in the southern city of Sweida, July 26, 2018. /VCG Photo

The extremist group still holds small, isolated areas of Syria's remote desert, which includes northeastern parts of Sweida, as well as pockets in the adjacent province of Daraa and further east near the border with Iraq.

Backed by Russia, Syrian troops have been waging an assault on an ISIL-held pocket of Daraa for more than a week.

Sweida, which is mostly held by the government and populated by the Druze minority, has been relatively insulated from the violence of Syria's seven-year war.

Last week's attacks were the bloodiest ever in the province and among the deadliest waged by ISIL in Syria.

(Top image: Syrians carry a coffin of one of the victims of suicide attacks during a mass funeral in the southern city of Sweida, July 26, 2018. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): AFP