Christians seized in Qaryatain

Dozens of Christians are feared to be among 230 people abducted by Islamic State (IS) after it captured a central Syrian town last week, writes Ellen Teague.

Jihadis seized Qaryatain, 50 miles from the city of Homs, after suicide bombers targeted army checkpoints. Forty-five Assyrian Christian women and 19 children were taken, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The capture of the town is the Islamic terrorists’ most significant advance since seizing the ancient city of Palmyra in May, the month that Syrian priest Jacques Mourad was abducted from the Syriac Catholic Mar Elian monastery in Qaryatain.

Many Christians had sought refuge in Qaryatain after fleeing Syria’s Aleppo province. Its capture allows IS to link up areas it controls in and around Palmyra with the eastern countryside of Qalamoun close to Lebanon.