’ISIS’ Massacres, Kidnaps Hundreds of Civilians in Deir Ezzor

Local Editor

"ISIS" terrorists group abducted more than 400 Syrian civilians after capturing new ground in a major assault on the city of Deir Ezzor that left dozens dead.

The shock attack comes as SANA reported that the terrorists committed a massacre in al-Bghailiye village in Deir Ezzor's western countryside, claiming the lives of around 300 civilians, most of them women, children, and elderly people.

The Syrian cabinet condemned the heinous crime, with Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi saying that the legal and moral responsibility for this barbaric and cowardly massacre committed by "ISIS" hordes lies on the shoulders of all the states that support terrorism and that fund and armor Takfiri organizations which harbor hatred for all humanity.

For its part, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "ISIS" had killed at least 135 people in the multi-front attack that began on Saturday.

"Those abducted, all of whom are Sunnis, include women, children and family members of pro-regime fighters," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

He said they had been taken to areas under "ISIS" control in the west of Deir Ezzor province and to the border with Raqa province -- the main "ISIS" stronghold in Syria -- to the northwest.

It added that regime forces were bringing additional troops and military equipment from elsewhere in the city to the battlefront.

The "ISIS" assault puts the group in control of around 60 percent of Deir Ezzor city, which is capital of the surrounding province of the same name, an oil-rich region that borders Iraq.

If confirmed, the death toll in the assault would be one of the highest in a single attack by "ISIS", though the militants have carried out mass murders before.

In 2014, its militants killed hundreds of members of the Sunni Shaitat tribe in Deir Ezzor province after they opposed the terrorist.

And in August 2014, the group massacred some 200 Syrian soldiers when it overran the Tabqa military base in Raqa province.

The militants have also carried out mass abductions before, seizing more than 200 civilians from central Homs province in August 2014, and at least 220 Assyrian Christians from villages in the northeast of the country months earlier.

Some of those abducted in those incidents have been freed in small batches, in some cases reportedly in exchange for ransoms.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team