Islamic State militants have moved a large group of Christians they abducted to one of their strongholds as fighting raged on Wednesday between the extremists and Kurdish and Christian militiamen for control of a chain of villages along a strategic river in northeastern Syria, activists and state-run media said.
The Khabur River in Hassakeh province, which borders Turkey and Iraq, has become the latest battleground in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria. It is predominantly Kurdish but also has populations of Arabs and predominantly Christian Assyrians and Armenians.
In pre-dawn attacks, the IS on Monday attacked communities nestled along the river, seizing at least 70 people, including many women and children. Thousands of others fled to safer areas.
The fate of those kidnapped, almost all of them Assyrian Christians, remained unclear Wednesday, two days after they were seized. Relatives of the group searched frantically for word on the fate of the loved ones, but none came.
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Talia appealed for “anyone with a free conscience” to address the tragedy of the Assyrians.
“We have lost our homes, our property, everything. But the hardest thing we lost is our dignity,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Bram Janssen in Irbil contributed to this report.
