Nineteen of the Assyrian Christians seized by Islamic State militants last week in northeastern Syria have been freed, and they met with church officials in a cathedral in the city of Hasaka, local leaders said Sunday. Three of those freed were women, and according to videos and photographs, some appeared to be elderly men. Dawoud Dawoud, an official with the Assyrian Democratic Organization, said that Islamic State fighters were reported to be looting some of the villages they seized along the Khabur River, where many of the hostages were captured. Scores of the captives remain unaccounted for, though Sunni Arab local leaders have been mediating between Assyrian Christian leaders and Islamic State militants to free the rest, officials said. Meanwhile, the United States-led coalition against the Islamic State bombed targets near Hasaka for the third day in a row, according to Central Command. The strikes suggested a stepped-up operation in response to the advance by Islamic State militants that drove more than 1,000 of the Assyrian Christians, a minority in Syria, from their homes.
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