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. 



German, French FMs Meet Sharaa in Damascus, Press for Inclusive Political Transition

Head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in Damascus, Syria January 3, 2025. Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham/Handout via REUTERS
Head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in Damascus, Syria January 3, 2025. Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham/Handout via REUTERS
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German, French FMs Meet Sharaa in Damascus, Press for Inclusive Political Transition

Head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in Damascus, Syria January 3, 2025. Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham/Handout via REUTERS
Head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in Damascus, Syria January 3, 2025. Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham/Handout via REUTERS

The foreign ministers of Germany and France said they wanted to forge a new relationship with Syria and urged a peaceful transition as they met its de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Friday on behalf of the European Union.
Germany's Annalena Baerbock and France's Jean-Noel Barrot are the first ministers from the EU to visit Syria since opposition fighters seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8 and forced President Bashar al-Assad to flee.

The two ministers pressed for an inclusive political transition that includes women and all ethnic and religious groups.
"My trip today...is a clear signal to the Syrians: A new political beginning between Europe and Syria, between Germany and Syria, is possible," Baerbock said before she left for Damascus.
Barrot expressed his hope "for a sovereign, stable and peaceful Syria" after arriving in Damascus, where he also visited the French embassy, which has been closed since 2012.
Barrot, who met with the Syrian staff who looked after the French embassy's closed facilities, said France would work towards re-establishing diplomatic representation in line with political and security conditions, diplomatic sources said.

Baerbock and Barrot visited Syria's Saydnaya prison, an emblem of abuses under Assad.

"Now it's up to the international community to help bring justice to the people who have suffered here in this prison of hell," Baerbock said.