HRW Says Daesh Hostage-Taking War Crime
The group of mostly women and children were abducted by Daesh during a massive July 25 assault on the Druze community in Sweida, in which the terrorists killed more than 250 people.
They are being held by Daesh to use as leverage in negotiations with the Syrian government and its ally Russia, according to HRW.
“Hostage-taking is a war crime,” the rights group said, AFP reported.
“Civilian lives should not be used as bargaining chips,” said its deputy Middle East director Lama Fakih.
Of more than 30 people taken hostage in the July offensive, at least two have since died.
A 19-year-old male student was beheaded and a video circulated of the killing, which was not released on the terrorists’’ usual channels.
Later in August a 65-year-old woman died, with Daesh reporting she had been unwell.
Additionally, two women were able to escape after being abducted from their home, a family member told HRW.
Villagers provided the names of at least 27 people who remain in Daesh captivity, with children as young as seven among them, according to activists in Sweida province.
The province is the heartland of Syria’s Druze minority who are despised as heretics by extremists.
Daesh is seeking the release of terrorists captured by the government in the neighboring province of Daraa, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said earlier this month.
The terrorists currently hold less than three percent of Syria, after losing swathes of territory to government forces backed by Russian firepower.
