The Islamic State (IS) group abducted at least 400 civilians, including women and children, after capturing new territory in an assault on Syria’s eastern city of Deir ez-Zor, a monitor said yesterday.
“After their attack on Deir Ezzor [on Saturday], IS abducted at least 400 civilians from the residents of the al-Baghaliyeh neighborhood it captured and adjacent areas in the northwest of the city,” the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“Those abducted, all of whom are Sunnis, include women, children and family members of pro-regime fighters,” observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding they were transported to other areas under IS control.
News of the abduction came amid reports that the militants had killed 300 people in a day-long attack on Deir ez-Zor on Saturday.
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) yesterday said that most of those killed in the “appalling massacre” were elderly people, women and children.
If the SANA number is confirmed, it would be one of the highest tolls for a single day in Syria’s nearly five-year war.
Opposition activists have also confirmed at least some of the killings. The observatory late on Saturday said that at least 135 people were killed, including about 80 soldiers and pro-government militiamen. It added that many of them were shot dead or beheaded execution style.
The bloodshed in Deir ez-Zor came as regime forces battled the IS in the northern province of Aleppo, killing at least 16 militants and as air strikes hit the IS stronghold of Raqa.
The observatory said the IS had advanced into the northern tip of Deir ez-Zor and captured the northern suburb of al-Baghaliyeh.
Initially it reported that 35 Syrian soldiers and allied militiamen were killed in the multi-front attack, including a suicide bombing. However, as the day unfolded the death toll rose, with the monitoring group saying that civilians were among those killed in the city.
SANA quoted Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi as saying that the “legal and moral responsibility for this barbaric and cowardly massacre ... lies on the shoulders of all the states that support terrorism and that fund and arm takfiri [Sunni extremist]” groups.
According to the observatory, the advance put the IS in control of about 60 percent of Deir ez-Zor city, capital of the province of the same name in an oil-rich region bordering Iraq.
The IS said its fighters carried out several suicide bombings against the government’s forces in the city and seized control of al-Baghaliyeh and other areas.
In other developments, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Philip Hammond, in comments reported on Saturday, said about 600 Britons have been stopped from going to Syria to join the IS and other extremist groups.
Hammond said the interceptions, as well as airstrikes, were placing extra strain on the IS in its Raqqa headquarters.
“There is evidence [IS] is finding it difficult to recruit to the brigades in Raqqa because of the high attrition rate of foreign fighters,” he said, according to the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph newspapers.
Syria’s war has killed more than 260,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes.
Additional reporting by AP
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