Islamic State abducts 200

Islamic State (IS) jihadists on Monday abducted an estimated 200 Christian men, women and ­children from villages in north-eastern Syria, a human-rights body said.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the Assyrian Orthodox Christians were kidnapped in dawn raids near the town of Tal Tamr. They were taken from the villages of Tal Shamiram and Tal Hurmoz in a predominantly Kurdish region of Syria that lies between Turkey and Iraq. Sources told SOHR that they heard IS members saying via wireless devices that they had detained “56 crusaders” from Tal Shamiram.

IS fighters swept through a string of Christian-majority ­villages along the banks of the Khabour River on Monday. More than 600 families have fled, a local cleric told the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) – around 400 to Hassakeh city and another 200 to Qamishli, with others trapped in their villages.

Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana, who supports persecuted Christians in the region, spoke to a bishop aiding those who fled. “Bishop Mar Aprem Athniel … told me the church and community hall are overloaded with the people and they are now [sending] them to the families in Hassakeh city,” he told ACN. The churches in Tal Shamiran and Tal Hurmoz were torched, ACN said.

Archimandrite Youkhana said among the kidnapped were 14 young people who were defending Tal Hurmoz. IS terrorists had separated men from women and children. “Knowing the brutal, ­barbaric record of IS with the captured, the destiny of those families is a major concern,” he said.