Women, Children Kidnapped by ISIS in Sweida Last Week

Druze clergymen pray during a funeral of two of those killed a day earlier in the ISIS attacks in the southern province of al-Sweida during a mass funeral at Shahba town, in Sweida province, Syria, Thursday, July 26, 2018. AP
Druze clergymen pray during a funeral of two of those killed a day earlier in the ISIS attacks in the southern province of al-Sweida during a mass funeral at Shahba town, in Sweida province, Syria, Thursday, July 26, 2018. AP
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Women, Children Kidnapped by ISIS in Sweida Last Week

Druze clergymen pray during a funeral of two of those killed a day earlier in the ISIS attacks in the southern province of al-Sweida during a mass funeral at Shahba town, in Sweida province, Syria, Thursday, July 26, 2018. AP
Druze clergymen pray during a funeral of two of those killed a day earlier in the ISIS attacks in the southern province of al-Sweida during a mass funeral at Shahba town, in Sweida province, Syria, Thursday, July 26, 2018. AP

ISIS kidnapped dozens of women and children when it attacked their villages last week in Syria's southern province of Sweida, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday.

More than 250 people were killed on Wednesday when the terrorist group 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 Britain-based monitor.

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 ISIS 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.

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

The extremist group 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. 



Syria’s Al-Sharaa Meets Christian Delegation on New Year’s Eve

Head of Syria’s new administration Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with a delegation of senior Christian clerics in Damascus on Tuesday. (New Syrian administration)
Head of Syria’s new administration Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with a delegation of senior Christian clerics in Damascus on Tuesday. (New Syrian administration)
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Syria’s Al-Sharaa Meets Christian Delegation on New Year’s Eve

Head of Syria’s new administration Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with a delegation of senior Christian clerics in Damascus on Tuesday. (New Syrian administration)
Head of Syria’s new administration Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with a delegation of senior Christian clerics in Damascus on Tuesday. (New Syrian administration)

Head of Syria’s new administration Ahmed al-Sharaa received a Christian delegation on New Year’s Eve in Damascus on Tuesday.

The delegation included representatives of Christian sects in a bid to reassure Syria’s minorities over the new rulers that ousted Bashar al-Assad's regime on December 8.

Sharaa was seen wearing a suit and tie as he met with the clerics, who included representatives of the Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Assyrian Orthodox and Protestant churches, showed photos posted by the Syrian General Command posted on Telegram.

Earlier, a Syrian official told AFP that Sharaa held "positive" talks with delegates of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday.

The talks were Sharaa's first with Kurdish commanders since his opposition fighters overthrew Assad and come as the SDF is locked in fighting with Turkish-backed factions in northern Syria.

The US-backed SDF spearheaded the military campaign that ousted ISIS fighters from their last territory in Syria in 2019.

But Türkiye, which has long had ties with Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, accuses the main component of the SDF of links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a four-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

On Sunday, Sharaa told Al Arabiya television that Kurdish-led forces should be integrated into the new national army.

"Weapons must be in the hands of the state alone. Whoever is armed and qualified to join the defense ministry, we will welcome them," he said.