Tal Tamer, Syria (BBN)-ISIS is holding many more Assyrian Christians hostage than previously thought – and it is reportedly planning to release a message Wednesday threatening to kill them.
Osama Edward, founder of the Assyrian Human Rights Network, told CNN that the extremist group is now believed to have 150 hostages, citing the latest information from the network’s team on the ground, reports CNN.
Initial estimates put the number seized at between 70 and 100 people, among them women, children and the elderly.
The video message will be directed to President Barack Obama and other members of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, Edward said from Stockholm, Sweden.
The Assyrians were kidnapped early Tuesday from villages near Tal Tamer in northeastern Syria.
Edward, who has family in the area attacked by the terror group, said the latest information from the ground indicated the hostages had been moved to an ISIS-controlled location.
The last message received from the hostages was a text from a kidnapped woman to her husband, Edward said. She said the kidnappers were interrogating the hostages about whether the women were members of local militias.
‘THEY ARE FACING DEATH’
Edward said he feared the hostages would face the same fate as Assyrians targeted in Iraq and the more than 20 members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority slaughtered by ISIS in Libya last month.
“Maybe they are facing the same destiny. That’s why we call on all over the world, like the U.S, Europe, coalition forces — protect Assyrians, save Assyrians in Syria,” he said.
“They are facing death, people are unarmed, they are peaceful. And they need help, they are just left alone — no one’s protecting them.”
Edward said some 35 Assyrian villages and towns had now been taken over by ISIS, forcing thousands of families to flee.
Some 600 families have taken refuge in St. Mary’s Cathedral in al-Hasakah, Syria, he said Tuesday.
The Assyrians lack food, water, blankets and other necessities after years of being in the middle of a civil war.
ISIS has attacked numerous minority groups during a bloody campaign to create a vast caliphate across Syria and Iraq under its extreme version of Sharia law.
The United States condemns “in the strongest possible terms” the latest kidnapping of Assyrians and demands their immediate release, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement Tuesday.
“Hundreds of other civilians remain trapped in villages surrounded by ISIL fighters, and clashes continue between ISIL and local forces defending their communities,” she said, using an alternative acronym for ISIS.
“ISIL burned and destroyed homes and churches, and the violence has reportedly displaced more than 3,000 people.”
PROGRESS REPORTED IN IRAQ, SYRIA
In a minor victory in the fight against ISIS, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday that 132 ISIS militants have been killed since February 21.
They died in U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and in battles with Syrian Kurdish fighters, the al-Sanadid Army and other fighters in Syria’s al-Hasakah province, the Observatory said in a statement.
Meanwhile with the help of coalition strikes, the Kurdish YPG, or People’s Protection Units, have taken control of 70 villages in al-Hasakah province, according to the statement.
Progress is also reported from Iraq’s western Anbar province, where Iraqi armed forces have managed to liberate most areas of the town of al-Baghdadi, long besieged by ISIS, according to the Iraqi Defense Ministry.
Videos released by the ministry Tuesday showed convoys moving toward al-Baghdadi and patrolling parts of the city as well as lawmakers visiting the nearby Ayn al-Asad air base, where some 400 U.S. military personnel are stationed to train Iraqi pilots in the fight against ISIS.
When contacted by CNN, an Anbar official, Faleh al-Assawi, said Iraqi security forces aided by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes had secured about 80% of al-Baghdadi.
The Defense Ministry said on its website that it is working to secure the rest of the town.
But these are only small steps toward eradicating a threat that grows more savage by the day.
BBN/SS-25Feb15-8:20pm (BST)