The latest ISIS terror video is apparently running behind schedule—it was supposed to be released on Wednesday—but all indications are that it will include a threat to murder their Christian hostages, including women and children, if the bombing campaign against the Islamic State is not halted.
The terror state grabbed its hostages by raiding two Assyrian Christian towns seized from Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria. According to the UK Daily Mail, the hostages have been dispersed between buildings in the ISIS-held town of al-Shadadi, to serve as human shields. Some sources say the number of hostages is closer to 250 than the 150 initially reported.
The Assyrian Human Rights Network has been giving advance warning of the upcoming ISIS threat, saying that the video will address President Obama and the leaders of other nations engaged in the anti-ISIS air campaign, warning them that the hostages will be killed if bombing continues.
Naturally, the Obama State Department responded to this by reminding everyone that most of ISIS’s victims are Muslims. “ISIS’ latest targeting of a religious minority is only further testament to its brutal and inhumane treatment of all those who disagree with its divisive goals and toxic beliefs,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
ISIS continues to exact its evil upon innocents of all faiths, and the majority of its victims have been Muslims. To bring an end to these daily horrors, we remain committed to leading the international coalition to degrade and defeat ISIS and to work towards a negotiated political solution that stops the bloodshed and secures a future of freedom, justice, and dignity for all Syrians.
That should make the relatives of the Christian hostages, who escaped to a church in nearby Hasakah, feel better. Over 1,000 families are said to have been driven out of their homes by the latest ISIS offensive.
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