ISIS Kidnaps Dozens of Assyrian Christians in Syria
Of late, ISIS has changed its strategy from killing one hostage at a time to mass murders.
By Rakesh Raman
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants have kidnapped at least 56 Assyrian citizens of Christian faith from the countryside of al-Hasakah province in Syria.
Christianity is now the primary target for ISIS, as the terrorist outfit believes that it’s a largely a fight between Christian crusaders and Muslims belonging to Islam. Recently, an ISIS video showed mass beheading of 21 Christians kidnapped in Libya.
However, the U.S., which is leading the coalition forces to attack ISIS, maintains that its fight is not against Islam.
“We are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam,” said the U.S. President Barack Obama, who was addressing a White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism.
[ President Obama: We Are Not at War with Islam ]
Quoting its sources, a human rights group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported Monday that ISIS has kidnapped at least 56 Assyrian citizens in the village of Tal Shamiram located around the town of Tal Tamer in the countryside of al-Hasakah.
Of late, ISIS also has changed its strategy from killing one hostage at a time to mass murders. For example, the Libyan branch of ISIS carried out mass beheading of 21 Christians kidnapped in Libya.
And a new video has claimed that ISIS has caught over 20 Peshmerga soldiers in cages and paraded them through the streets of Iraq. Peshmerga fighters belong to the military forces of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The SOHR sources also confirmed that they heard via wireless devices ISIS members saying that they detained “56 crusaders.”
The number of kidnapped Assyrians can be more, as SOHR informs that some of them have also been kidnapped by ISIS militants from the village of Tal Hermez.
The fate of the kidnapped Assyrians is not yet clear.
By Rakesh Raman, the managing editor of RMN Company
You also can read: More Articles by the RMN Editor, Rakesh Raman
