Thousands of Christians Flee ISIS After Mass Abduction in Syria

Around 1,000 Assyrian families have fled their homes in Hassakeh province after a mass kidnapping of their community by ISIS, the AFP reports.

“About 800 of them have taken refuge in the city of Hassakeh and 150 in Qamishli, a Kurdish-majority city on the Turkish border, Osama Edward, director of the Sweden-based Assyrian Human Rights Network said.

The Assyrians were taken hostage after dawn raids in which ISIS seized villages inhabited by the ancient Christian minority near the town of Tel Hmar, a mainly Assyrian town, from Kurdish forces in the province of Hassakeh.

There are conflicting reports of how many people were taken. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, claim the group abducted at least 90 people. However, the Assyrian Human Rights Network puts the figure as high as 220.

Most of the hostages were women, children or the elderly, according to Syrian state-run SANA news Agency. The mass kidnapping was mostly likely linked to ISIS’s loss of territory as a result of U.S.-led coalition strikes that began in September. “They took the hostages to use them as human shields,” Edward told AFP. He added that the militant group may try to exchange the kidnapped Assyrians for ISIS prisoners.

Syrian Kurdish forces, backed by U.S. led strikes, launched a major offensive Sunday against ISIS in north-eastern Syria near the border of Iraq, an area of strategic importance to the jihadis.

Kurdish fighters recaptured three Assyrian villages and a nearby Arab village Wednesday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. “The [Kurdish] People’s Protection Units (YPG) have reclaimed Tal Shamiran, Tal Masri, Tal Hermel and Ghbeish,” said director Rami Abdel-Rahman.

The United States and the United Nations condemned the mass abduction, demanding the hostages be released immediately. “[The] latest targeting of a religious minority is only further testament to its brutal and inhumane treatment of all those who disagree with its divisive goals and toxic beliefs,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

The kidnappings have magnified fears of more atrocities targeting Christians and other minorities in the Middle East.

Moderate Syrian Fighters Step Up in Greater Numbers than Expected to Fight ISIS

Moderate Syrian fighters in greater numbers than U.S. officials had expected are stepping forward to battle ISIS militants, the White House’s special envoy for the campaign against the militant group said Wednesday.

“The numbers are much higher than we thought and it’s been very encouraging. We’ve had an encouraging sense that there is an interest in this,” retired Gen. John Allen, President Barack Obama’s envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition, told a U.S. Senate committee.

The U.S. military has indicated that it will send more than 400 troops to train Syrian moderate rebels as part of its efforts to confront the Islamic State. Under the plan, up to 15,000 Syrian fighters will be trained over a period of three years. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey have publicly acknowledged offers to host training sites.

The U.S. has thus far screened around 1,200 potential Syrian opposition fighters to participate in the training in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to battle the Islamic State, according to the Pentagon.

U.S. lawmakers are considering a request by President Barack Obama for a formal three-year authorization for the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS.

“The measure is expected to face difficulty in Congress, where many Democrats worry it will lead to another long engagement by U.S. combat troops in the Middle East and Republicans are concerned it does not give commanders enough flexibility to defeat Islamic State,” the Lebanon Daily Star reports.

Aid Group Chief Says U.N. Efforts to Boost Aid Access in Syria Have Had No Impact

“A series of U.N. Security Council resolutions passed last year seeking to boost aid access to reach millions of Syrians in desperate need of assistance have had no impact,” AP reports, citing the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council . The U.N. says that 12.2 million Syrians are in need of assistance, of which 4.5m are in hard-to-reach areas, including 200,000 who live in besieged communities. Some 7.6 million have been displaced inside the country, and an additional 3.8 million have fled Syria.

The Security Council has thus far passed three resolutions in an attempt to increase humanitarian access to Syria. In July 2014, the Security Council authorized U.N. agencies to cross conflict lines using border crossings from Turkey, Iraq and Jordan. It was an unprecedented decision to authorize delivery of aid into the country without the consent of the Syrian government.

Egeland told the AP that the resolutions “have had no impact” and the international community is “not able to do what we should be able to do”. He added: “We’re failing the Syrians – that’s the honest truth here. The Security Council has failed in enforcing their own resolution.”

Egeland placed the blame on the Syrian government and the armed opposition fighting to defeat the regime of President Bashar Assad, but also said that neighboring countries have complicated the delivery of cross-border aid by imposing harsh bureaucratic measures.

He added that global attention on combating ISIS has shifted the attention away from the humanitarian toll of the crisis.

“IS is part of our problem, it’s not the problem,” he said, urging the international community not to forget about Syria’s civilian population.

Recommended Reads:

• Al Monitor: Syrian Regime, Allies Lose Decisive Battle in Aleppo
• AFP: Australian Reported Killed Fighting with Kurds Against ISIS in Syria
• BBC: Smuggler Reveals How U.K. Schoolgirls Crossed into Syria
• Al Jazeera America: New Restrictions Won’t Solve Lebanon’s Syria Problem
• Lebanon Daily Star: Army Pounds Jihadi Targets on Lebanon-Syria Border