36 women, children kidnapped by IS in Syria

BEIRUT: The Islamic State group kidnapped dozens of Druze women and children when it attacked their villages last week in Syria’s southern province of Sweida, a monitor said on Monday.

More than 250 people were killed on Wednesday when IS carried out a string of suicide attacks and shootings in the provincial capital Sweida and villages to the north and east. "At least 36 Druze women and children were abducted after the attacks," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria. Four of the women had since managed to escape and another two had died, said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman. </s> The Islamic State group kidnapped dozens of Druze women and children when it attacked their villages last week in Syria's southern province of Sweida, a monitor said Monday.

More than 250 people were killed on Wednesday when IS carried out a string of suicide attacks and shootings in the provincial capital Sweida and villages to the north and east.

"At least 36 Druze women and children were abducted after the attacks," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria.

Four of the women had since managed to escape and another two had died, said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

Another 17 men from the areas targeted by IS were still unaccounted for, but it was unclear if they were also kidnapped, he told AFP.

Both the Observatory and Syrian news outlet Sweida24 said 20 women and 16 children had been kidnapped.

IS has not claimed the kidnappings, and no details on them could be found on its propaganda channels.

IS declared a self-styled Islamic "caliphate" in 2014 across Syria and Iraq, but has since lost most of that territory.

It still holds small, isolated areas of Syria's remote desert, which includes northeastern parts of Sweida, as well as pockets in the adjacent province of Daraa and further east near the border with Iraq.

Backed by Russia, Syrian troops have been waging an assault on an IS-held pocket of Daraa for more than a week.

Sweida, which is mostly held by the government and populated by the secretive Druze minority, has been relatively insulated from the violence of Syria's seven-year war.

Last week's attacks were the bloodiest ever in the province and among the deadliest waged by IS in Syria. </s> The Islamic State group kidnapped dozens of Druze women and children when it attacked their village last week in Syria's Sweida, residents of the southern province and a monitor said Monday.

Sweida, which is mainly government-held and populated with members of Syria's Druze minority, had been largely insulated from the conflict raging in the rest of the country since 2011.

But on Wednesday, a string of suicide blasts and shootings claimed by IS left more than 250 people dead in the provincial capital and nearby villages, most of them civilians.

After the attack IS jihadists also abducted several dozen women and children from one village, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Sweida residents.

The Britain-based Observatory said 36 Druze women and children were abducted, but that four women had since managed to escape while another two had died.

That left 14 women and 16 children in IS captivity, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. Another 17 men were unaccounted for, but it was unclear if they were also kidnapped.

IS has not claimed the kidnappings and no details on them could be found on its propaganda channels.

According to news outlet Sweida24, the 36 civilians were kidnapped on Wednesday from the village of Al-Shabki, in the eastern hinterlands of Sweida province.

Sweida24 and other online outlets published a video that appeared to show one of the hostages making demands of the Syrian government, purportedly on IS's behalf.

AFP could not independently verify its authenticity, but several Sweida residents confirmed that a woman appearing in the footage was among those missing after the attacks.

The hostages mainly hail from two large families in Al-Shabki, said reporter Nour Radwan, who heads Sweida24.

The remote village lies in the eastern edges of Sweida province and suffered some of the deadliest violence from Wednesday's attacks, with more than 60 civilians killed in Al-Shabki alone, Radwan said.

"Most of its residents are farmers and don't have much more than hunting rifles in terms of weapons, so there was little resistance from Al-Shabki compared to other villages," he told AFP.

"When IS saw that, it kidnapped a first batch of people from their homes and took them east towards the Badiya, according to survivors," Nour added.

The Badiya is Syria's vast desert, which stretches from the country's centre to its eastern border with Iraq and includes several isolated IS-held pockets.

IS has also reached out to the families of those abducted with pictures and videos.

The jihadists are demanding the release by the Syrian government "of detained IS-linked people, whose numbers are now being negotiated", said Radwan.

IS also wants a halt to a Syrian regime offensive on jihadist positions, he said.

Religious leaders from the Druze community have since stepped in, Radwan and another local source with knowledge of the talks told AFP.

"As of Sunday, the hostages were still being held in the Badiya. Negotiations are happening between Daesh and Druze sheikhs," said the source, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

IS has lost urban strongholds in Syria but still holds parts of the Badiya, including northeastern areas in Sweida and territory by the Iraqi border.

The jihadists also control a pocket in Daraa province, directly west of Sweida.

Backed by Russia, Syrian troops have been waging an assault on an IS-held pocket of Daraa for nearly two weeks.

On Monday, they began bombing operations ahead of an attack on the main IS-held town of Ash-Shajara in Daraa, Syrian state television said.

Since its bloody rise to power in 2014, IS has carried out multiple mass abductions in Syria and Iraq, including of minorities.

It kidnapped more than 220 Assyrian Christians in northeast Syria in 2015 and another 270 Christians from a central village the following year. Most of the hostages were released after negotiations.

Under the group's ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam, minorities are considered "infidels" but IS also politicises them as regime loyalists.

More than 350,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict erupted in 2011.

Wednesday's violence was the worst Sweida had seen since the war began, and one of IS's deadliest attacks across the country.

IS attackers detonated suicide bombs in Sweida city and villages to the north and east, while others shot and stabbed residents.

A total of 139 civilians were among more than 250 people killed, according to the Observatory. The remaining were pro-government fighters or residents who had picked up arms to defend their homes. </s> ISIS has executed one of a number of hostages taken from Syria’s Sweida, home to a large community of Druze, in an attack last week, local media and a war monitor said on Sunday.

ISIS killed the 19-year-old male student on Thursday after kidnapping more than 30 people, mostly women and children, from a village in Sweida during a deadly rampage last week, the head of the Sweida24 news website Nour Radwan told AFP.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based war monitor, said it was the first execution since the kidnappings.

Dozens of people were killed on July 25 in coordinated assaults by ISIS militants who overran villages and staged multiple suicide attacks inside Sweida city, killing more than 200 people, many of them civilians, Reuters reported.

SOHR said more than 30 people had been kidnapped during the attack.

There have been negotiations between Druze authorities and ISIS for the hostages’ release. </s> Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analyses from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.

Photos of 14 terrified young girls and women kidnapped July 25 when ISIS attacked the predominantly Druze city of Suwayda and massacred at least 255 civilians there were sent to their families over the weekend. The pictures, which have gone viral, show the hostages against the backdrop of ISIS’ black and white flag. The Islamic jihadis have threatened to harm the women if the Damascus regime does not halt its offensive against the rebel-held pocket in the Yarmouk Valley near Jordan and the Golan Heights.



Thousands of Druze in the Galilee and the village of Buqata on the Golan Heights gathered over the weekend to discuss the massacre of their co-religionists in Syria. “Our hearts and our prayers today are with the Druze in Syria after the massacre of Da’ash in which more than 260 Druze were killed in cold blood, mostly women and children,” tweeted Reda Mansour, a former Israel ambassador to Brazil, and a well-known Druze poet.





In an interview with Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis research fellow Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, Abbas Abu Shaheen – a leader of the Druze in Suwayda – said that 90% of those who were killed were civilians. According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 142 civilians and 113 government fighters were killed, in addition to 63 ISIS fighters. More than 200 others were reportedly injured.ISIS suicide bombers penetrated Suwayda (pop. 170,000) and sent teams of fighters in vehicles to raid Druze villages east of the city. Villagers battled with ISIS for three days. Videos online showed that some villagers rescued families who had been kidnapped.Druze fighters found in the villages they liberated from ISIS evidence of mass murder, similar in scope and to the ISIS attack on Kobani in June 2015 when 100 ISIS fighters killed mostly Kurdish women and children in eastern Syria in a raid. In the Suwayda hinterland, ISIS fighters went house to house slaughtering the inhabitants.The ISIS attack targeting Druze is the first of its kind in the seven-year-long Syrian civil war. ISIS has targeted other minorities, committing genocide against Yazidis in northern Iraq, and driving Christians from their homes in Syria and Iraq. Syria’s Druze minority has been protected, and its communities remained under regime control. Al-Qaeda in Syria, known as the Nusra front in 2015, massacred 20 Druze that year.While the ISIS attack on Suwayda was ostensibly in response to the regime’s offensive against the ISIS enclave in southern Syria, the attack against the Druze has raised questions. Some pro-regime supporters suggested that the Druze area lacked security because the regime was punishing the Druze for avoiding military service. However Druze pointed out that many families in Suwayda have men serving in the Syrian Arab Army.They faulted the government for transferring ISIS militants to the Syrian Desert in May after they surrendered their stronghold in Yarmouk near Damascus. The now destroyed and deserted neighborhood, which was once home to the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria with a population of 112,550 registered refugees in 2002, had been besieged by government forces since 2015.Another conspiracy claimed that ISIS infiltrated Suwayda by sweeping around 100 km. to the east to the desert area of desert near the US-run Tanf base on the border with Jordan. Abu Shaheen told al-Tamimi that ISIS “coordinated with the Tanf base, and entered the villages of al-Shabaki, Rami and al-Ghayda.”The competing theories suggest that the attack on Suwayda will lead to rancor between the Druze community – which demands protection – and the Syrian regime, which is focused on fighting in southern Syria and has not sent enough troops to defeat ISIS. Now both the Druze and the regime are alert to further ISIS attacks. However the kidnapping of 14 women, and the broadcasting of their photos, underscores ISIS’ continuing threat. A video posted online at the website Badia24 claimed to show one of the women pleading that Syrian President Bashar Assad halt the attack on the Yarmouk basin. </s> Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The Druze are the third-largest religious minority in Syria

Islamic State (IS) militants are holding more than 30 women and children hostage in south-western Syria, a monitor and local media say.

They are thought to have been seized during a wave of deadly IS attacks in Suweida province last week.

The Syrian government controls most of the region but IS militants hold a small amount of territory there.

Pro-government forces recently launched a campaign to retake remaining rebel- and jihadist-held areas in the south.

The abductions were reported by the Suwayda24 website and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, following a series of suicide bombings that targeted an area dominated by the Druze ethnic minority on 25 July. More than 200 people were killed.

The Druze are the third-largest religious minority in Syria and are considered to be heretics by IS jihadists.

The SOHR said that at least 36 women and children had been seized by IS.

Several women have since managed to escape, and two have died, the reports say.

Negotiations to secure their release are under way, according to Suwayda24.

The IS group has so far not spoken about the kidnappings.

Over the past year, IS fighters have lost most of the land they once held across Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

At the peak of the group's power, about 10 million people lived in IS-controlled areas, but the US military said earlier this year that the jihadists had been ousted from 98% of their former territory.

In Syria, the group is still present in small pockets in the southern provinces of Suweida and Deraa, as well as in parts of the country's east. </s> ISIS kidnapped dozens of Druze women and children when it attacked their village last week in Syria's Sweida, it has been revealed.

Sweida, which is mainly government-held and populated with members of Syria's Druze minority, had been largely insulated from the conflict raging in the rest of the country since 2011.

But on Wednesday, a string of suicide blasts and shootings claimed by ISIS left more than 250 people dead in the provincial capital and nearby villages, most of them civilians.

During the attack, ISIS jihadists also abducted several dozen women and children from one village, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Sweida residents.

The Britain-based Observatory said 36 Druze women and children were abducted, but that four women had since managed to escape while another two had died.

That left 14 women and 16 children in ISIS captivity, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. Another 17 men were unaccounted for but it was unclear if they were also kidnapped.

ISIS has not claimed the kidnappings and no details on them could be found on its propaganda channels.

According to news outlet Sweida24, the 36 civilians were kidnapped Wednesday from the village of Al-Shabki, in the eastern hinterlands of Sweida province.

Sweida24 and other online outlets published a video that appeared to show one of the female hostages making demands of the Syrian government on behalf of ISIS.

AFP could not independently verify its authenticity, but several Sweida residents confirmed the woman was among those missing after the attacks.

Druze, who made up three percent of Syria's pre-war population, are monotheistic and considered Muslim, but the sect is otherwise highly secretive, includes mystical elements like reincarnation, and does not allow new converts.

They are regarded as heretics by Sunni Muslim extremist groups including ISIS.

The hostages mainly hail from two large families in Al-Shabki, said reporter Nour Radwan, who heads Sweida24.

The remote village suffered some of the deadliest violence from Wednesday's attacks, with more than 60 civilians killed there, Radwan said.

'Most of its residents are farmers and don't have much more than hunting rifles in terms of weapons, so there was little resistance from Al-Shabki compared to other villages,' he told AFP.

'When ISIS saw that, it kidnapped a first batch of people from their homes and took them east towards the Badiya, according to survivors,' Nour added.

The Badiya is Syria's vast desert stretching from the country's centre to its eastern border with Iraq, and it includes several isolated ISIS-held pockets.

ISIS then reached out to the hostage's families with pictures, videos, and ransom demands.

The jihadists want the Syrian government to release 'detained ISIS-linked people, whose numbers are now being negotiated,' and stop its offensive on nearby ISIS positions, said Radwan.

Druze religious leaders have since stepped in, Radwan and another source with knowledge of the talks told AFP.

'As of Sunday, the hostages were still being held in the Badiya. Negotiations are happening between Daesh (ISIS) and Druze sheikhs,' said the source.

'The massacres were massive, and so is the pain. There are families that were entirely wiped out,' said Noura al-Basha, an activist from Sweida.

'One young man from the Abu Ammar family in Al-Shabki lost his father and brother in the attacks. His mother was unaccounted for until they found her two days ago near the village, and his cousins are among those kidnapped,' Basha told AFP.

In addition to territory it holds in the Badiya, ISIS also controls a pocket in Daraa province, directly west of Sweida.

Backed by Russia, Syrian troops have been waging an assault on that ISIS-held patch for nearly two weeks.

On Monday, they overran the jihadist-controlled town of Ash-Shajara just a few hours after beginning to bomb it, Syrian state media said.

That has left just three villages under ISIS contol in Daraa, said the Observatory, but there are fears that hundreds of jihadists may have slipped away unharmed.

Since its bloody rise in 2014, IS has carried out multiple mass abductions in Syria and Iraq, including of minorities.

It kidnapped more than 220 Assyrian Christians in northeast Syria in 2015 and another 270 Christians from a central village the following year. Most of the hostages were released after negotiations.

Under the group's ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam, minorities are considered 'infidels' but IS also politicises them as regime loyalists.

More than 350,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict erupted in 2011.

Wednesday's violence was the worst Sweida had seen since the war began, and one of the deadliest attacks by IS across the country.

ISIS attackers detonated suicide bombs in Sweida city and villages to the north and east, while others shot and stabbed residents.

A total of 139 civilians were among more than 250 people killed, according to the Observatory. The other dead were pro-government fighters or residents who picked up arms to defend their homes. </s> The Islamic State jihadist group has executed one of dozens of Druze hostages abducted from Syria's southern province of Sweida last month, a Syrian news website and a monitor said Sunday.

IS killed the 19-year-old male student on Thursday after kidnapping more than 30 people, mostly women and children, from a village in Sweida during a deadly rampage last week, the head of the Sweida24 news website Nour Radwan told AFP.

Quoting relatives, Radwan said the young man was taken from the village of Al-Shabki on July 25 along with his mother.

His family received two videos, the first showing him being decapitated and the second of him speaking before being killed as well as images of his body after his death, Radwan said.

Sweida24 posted online part of a second video, which was seen by AFP, showing a young man who appeared to be sitting on the ground in a rocky landscape, wearing a black T-shirt with his hands tied behind his back.

The video could not be independently verified.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said it was the first execution since the kidnappings.

On July 25, IS carried out a series of attacks in Sweida's provincial capital and several villages that killed more than 250 people, mostly civilians.

It was the deadliest attack ever to target the mostly government-held province and the secretive Druze religious minority that populates it.

During the attack the jihadists abducted 36 Druze women and children from a village in Sweida's east, the Observatory said at the time.

Four women had since escaped while two had died, leaving 14 women and 16 children in IS captivity, according to the Observatory.

At the time, another 17 men were unaccounted for but it was unclear if they were also kidnapped.

On Friday, a top Druze religious leader said regime ally Russia was in talks with the jihadists over their release.

Sweida had until last week largely remained isolated from Syria's seven-year conflict.

Druze, which made up three percent of Syria's population before 2011, are considered Muslim but IS see them as heretics. </s> It is a that video depicts violent cruelty filmed somewhere in southern Syria.

"My fate is the result of the failed negotiations between the Islamic State and Druze authorities," said 19-year-old Muhannad Abu Ammar. "I hope that my kidnappers' demands will be met so that others will be spared my fate."

The Druzian teenager's plea for mercy was not granted. Presumably a short time after the video was made, militants from the Islamic State (IS) executed him. They sent the recording to Ammar's family along with another video showing his beheaded corpse.

The video, which has been circulated online, is terrible news for the relatives of the other hostages being held captive by IS.

Read more: Iraq's Yazidis mourn the loss of their homeland

On July 25, IS militants raided the town Al-Shabki near the city of Sweida in southern Syria, killing around 250 people. The population of the town fought back as best they could, but were unable to stop 36 inhabitants — mainly women and children — from being taken hostage. Shortly afterward, the militants released a video showing one of the hostages, who said that IS may kill the entire group.

This latest video of Ammar points towards the fact that, in the opinion of IS, the hostage negotiations have been considered a failure. Russia, too, has recently been involved in talks with the terrorist militia.

Syria's Druze community has attempted to stay as far away as possible from the country's ongoing civil war, but those efforts have not been entirely successful. The Druze played an active role in the Syrian military before the outbreak of the conflict, however, they always avoided aligning with a clear political position.

The Druze are a minority group in every country in which they live. As well as Syria, there are significant communities in Lebanon and Israel. In Syria, which had a prewar population of 21 million people, 700,000 inhabitants are Druzian — roughly 3.5 percent. In Lebanon they make up between 4 and 5 percent of the population; in Israel, not even 2 percent. A small number of Druze also live in Jordan.

Read more: Are Taliban and Kabul teaming up against 'Islamic State'?

Their livelihoods are correspondingly precarious. In Lebanon, the Druze have the right to self-govern and their status is legally recognized, but they don't wholly fit into the societal structure. Unlike Sunni and Shiite Muslims and Christians, they do not have a place at the table when it comes to the country's large political and denominational groups.

"The discrepancy between their historical heritage and the political reality of the present leads to considerable disillusionment and the feeling of being suppressed," author and legal scholar Abbas Halabi wrote in his book on the history of the Druze.

In Syria, the Druze gained considerable political influence after the Baath party took power in 1963, but were then gradually sidelined. This forced the minority group to learn early that Shiite Muslims were a force to be reckoned with in the country. This position also led to their, comparatively, restrained policy during the Syrian civil war. In the course of the conflict, however, they increasingly came into contact with extremists such as the Nusra Front and IS. It is these tensions that cost the life of young Ammar.

Under threat in Israel, too

The Druze regard themselves as an independent minority and their spiritual practice is influenced by various religions. They don't see themselves as Muslims, which has made their integration in Israel considerably easier. But a recently-passed law in the country risks alienating the group. Israeli Druze have voiced their concerns and displeasure at the new nation-state law, which defines the country as an exclusively Jewish state.

In July, a 23-year-old Druzian man Shady Zidan caused a sensation after publicly declaring his withdrawal from the country's military, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), citing the new legislation.

Read more: Israel's new nation-state law and the politics of superiority

"I am not a political person ... But I am a citizen, like all others, and give my all and more for the country. In the end, I am a second-class citizen?" he wrote in a post on Facebook. "So thank you, I am not prepared to be part of this, and ... I have decided to stop serving this country."

"Until today, I stood in front of the national flag with pride and I saluted it. Until today, I sang the Hatikva national anthem because I was sure that this is my country and I am equal to all others," Zidan added. "But today, today I refused for the first time in my service to salute the flag, I refused for the first time to sing the national anthem."

Zidan is just one of a number of Israeli Druze who have expressed their opposition to the new law.

By vocalizing their concerns with the new exclusionary measure, the Druze have pushed the issue to the fore of the public debate in Israel. Many people have expressed sympathy for a community they view as loyal to the state. "The Druze deserve more," Amiram Levin, a former major general in the IDF, wrote in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. "We all deserve more. We must no longer remain silent. We should all join the Druze struggle and repeal the nation-state law."

The IDF immediately issued a statement in response to the comment from Zidan. "The shared responsibility and the warrior’s camaraderie with our brothers the Druze, Bedouin, and other minorities serving in the IDF, will continue to guide us," said Gadi Eizenkot, chief of staff of the IDF. "Trust us, we will fight for you."

Threatened with death and violence in Syria and being stripped of civil rights in Israel, the Druze are facing hostility in different forms in both countries. In each case, they are being forced to redefine their communities' relationship with the states in which they live.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports that ISIL militants are holding more than 30 Druze women and children hostage following last week's attacks on Druze villages in the As-Suwayda Governorate.