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Watchdog groups report Islamic State abducts at least 70 Christians in Syria

 
Going to Join ISIS? A photo issued by London police shows, from left, Amira Abase, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Shamima Begum, 15, going through Gatwick Airport before catching a flight to Turkey on Feb. 17. On Tuesday, police said they believe the teenagers have crossed into Syria, likely joining dozens of other young women leaving Europe to join the Islamic State.
Going to Join ISIS? A photo issued by London police shows, from left, Amira Abase, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Shamima Begum, 15, going through Gatwick Airport before catching a flight to Turkey on Feb. 17. On Tuesday, police said they believe the teenagers have crossed into Syria, likely joining dozens of other young women leaving Europe to join the Islamic State.
Published Feb. 25, 2015

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Islamic State militants in eastern Syria have captured at least 70 Assyrian Christians, including many women and children, in one of the largest recent abductions against religious minorities by the extremists, watchdog groups said Tuesday.

ISIS said it was holding "tens of crusaders" — a term it often uses to describe Christians — but other details were not clear.

The incident represents another blow to the Middle East's besieged Christian communities, which have dwindled dramatically in recent years because of attacks by Islamist militants and others.

It also is the latest onslaught against religious minorities by ISIS, whose previous targets have included Yazidis in northern Iraq, who were taken captive and killed in much larger numbers last year.

The Assyrian captives could become bargaining chips as ISIS seeks to hold strategic ground linking its territory in Syria and Iraq. Some members of the embattled Assyrian Christian community, a group dating to biblical times, have taken up arms against ISIS.

But ISIS also has wreaked quick vengeance on those who fall into its hands. A video released this month showed the beheadings of 20 Egyptian Coptic Christians and a Ghanaian Christian held hostage in Libya by a branch of ISIS.

Syria's oil-rich eastern region has been a key battleground against the militant group, which has faced repeated airstrikes from a U.S.-led international coalition. But the abductions, reportedly carried out during raids on villages, suggest some advances or retrenching by the extremists.

As many as 90 people from the Assyrian Christian community were taken from villages in Syria's northeastern province of Hassakeh, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that monitors the civil war.

Another group that chronicles abuses by ISIS posted on its Facebook account that 70 people were abducted from villages near the town of Tal Tamr, citing figures obtained by Assyrian activists.

Many of those reported kidnapped are women and children, according to the group.

The reason for the discrepancy in the number is unclear. The fate of the captives is not known. ISIS uses a violent interpretation of Islam to justify atrocities against religious minorities and opponents.