IS kidnaps 230 civilians in central Syria

The Islamic State group has abducted 230 civilians, including at least 60 Christians, in a central Syrian town hours after it captured it, a monitoring group said on Friday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the civilians were taken on Thursday in the town of al-Qaryatain, which IS jihadists had captured late Wednesday.

“Daesh kidnapped at least 230 people, including at least 60 Christians, during a sweep through al-Qaryatain,” Observatory chief Rami Abdul-Rahman said, using another name for IS.

Many of the Christians had fled from Aleppo province, in Syria’s north, to seek refuge in al-Qaryatain.

He said those abducted were wanted by IS for “collaborating with the regime,” and their names were on a list used by the jihadists as they swept through the town.

Families who tried to flee or hide were tracked down and taken by the jihadists, he said.

Al-Qaryatain lies at the crossroads between IS territory in the eastern countryside of Homs and areas further west in the Qalamoun area.

It had a pre-war population of 18,000, including Sunni Muslims and around 2,000 Syriac Catholics and Orthodox Christians.

According to a Syrian Christian who lives in Damascus but is originally from al-Qaryatain, the town’s Christian population has dropped to only 300.

In May, masked men abducted Syrian priest Jacques Mourad from the Syriac Catholic Mar Elian monastery in al-Qaryatain, near the IS-captured ancient city of Palmyra.

Mourad, who was known to help both Christians and Muslims, was preparing aid for an influx of refugees from Palmyra.