Reports have emerged from Syria that the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has abducted at least 400 civilians from Deir ez-Zor, Syria, after a mass beheading that took more than 100 lives.
Activists on the ground claim the attacks killed 135, but state run media SANA reported 300 dead.
London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights concluded the Islamic State killed “50 Syrian forces or loyal militia fighters and 85 family members of security forces from the village of Bghailiye.” The terrorist group lost 42 militants.
“After their attack on Deir Ezzor (on Saturday), ISIS abducted at least 400 civilians from the residents of the Al-Baghaliyeh neighborhood it captured and adjacent areas in the northwest of the city,” stated the group. “Those abducted, all of whom are Sunnis, include women, children and family members of pro-regime fighters.”
State news outlet SANA’s version of events asserted the group killed 300 people, mainly the elderly, females, and children. They did not report any Islamic State deaths.
“The Daesh (ISIS) terrorists carried out a massacre in Al-Baghaliyeh, claiming the lives of around 300 civilians, most of them women, children and elderly people,” it said.
Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi condemned the attack and declared that the “legal and moral responsibility for this barbaric and cowardly massacre … lies on the shoulders of all the states that support terrorism and that fund and arm takfiri (Sunni extremist)” groups.
The human rights group additionally reported fights between the Islamic State and Syrian forces in Al-Bab, located in Aleppo province. One fight killed 16 jihadists.
Russian warplanes helped the Syrian forces with airstrikes between the Kweyris air base and Al-Bab. The regime is only six miles from the village, which is the closest since 2012 when rebels captured the town. The Islamic State then occupied Al-Bab in 2013.
The regime is concentrating on Aleppo province to “cut rebel supply lines into Aleppo city.” The rebels and Islamic State control the city, but the regime wants to dominate the rebel-held east.
On January 9, the Islamic State attacked the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Aleppo. They attacked SDF headquarter buildings in Yusuf Pasha, Qashlah, Sadaniya, Haj Husen, Hamad, and Agha.
“Subsequent to the attack, fierce clashes broke out between our (SDF) forces and Daesh terrorists in northern Aleppo,” announced SDF spokesman Habun Osman. “The terror group brought large military reinforcements from Manbij city on the border with Turkey after we cut off their main supply line between Raqqa and Aleppo.”
The SDF received help from warplanes connected to the U.S.-led coalition.
“More than twenty Daesh terrorists were killed, before the rest were forced to withdraw towards their major bastion of Manbij,” he added.
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