Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists have kidnapped dozens of Christians in northern Syria. According to reports, some sources state that as many as 90 were abducted from their homes near Tal Tamr. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad regime monitoring group, said that 90 Assyrian Christians were abducted as Islamic State fighters were engaged in battles with Kurdish and Assyrian forces.
The Observatory claimed that its sources heard radio chatter describing the new captives as “crusaders.”
The Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) reports that four Assyrian fighters were killed as a result of the battles, along with tens of ISIS jihadists. AINA also reported that while dozens have been abducted, other Christian communities are now completely surrounded by the Islamic terrorists.
The Islamic State also destroyed a “number of churches” in the area, which include the churches in Tel Hurmiz, Tel Shamiran, and Tel Baloua, AINA reports.
Approximately 3,000 residents have been forced to flee their Assyrian communities in Syria. A source on the ground told AINA that people who live in the villages have not been answering their phones, and that some of the calls have been answered by ISIS jihadists.
The news of the Assyrian Christians’ kidnappings comes just over a week after ISIS-affiliated jihadis in Libya beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians in a graphic five-minute video. In that video, titled “A Message Signed with Blood to the Nation of the Cross,” a militant leader promises to “conquer Rome, by Allah’s permission.”
The Islamic State has insisted that the Christian people– the “crusaders,”–are its foremost enemy in the terror group’s jihad through Syria and Iraq. In its most recent publication of Dabiq, the ISIS propaganda magazine, the words “Crusaders” and “Christians” combined for over 100 mentions. In July, ISIS jihadis marked the houses of Iraqi Christians with the Arabic letter “Nun” for “Nazarene,” forcing many to flee or face imminent death. In the past year alone, 125,000 Middle East Christians have been forced to flee their homes.
