Syrian army frees 19 Druze hostages abducted by IS

DAMASCUS: The last 19 Druze women and children abducted by the Islamic State group in July from the southern Syrian province of Sweida were freed and welcomed by their relatives, state media said.

Syrian state media said the mass liberation was the result of a military operation but others insisted the 15-week hostage ordeal was ended thanks to a prisoner swap agreement.

Media reported that the freed hostages ‘met their relatives’ after more than three months of gruelling captivity during which at least two of the group were killed.

Local journalist Nour Radwan told AFP the hostages were brought to a military base in the north of Sweida province, where they were met by family members.

The group would next head to Sweida city, where dozens of people had gathered to welcome them home, said Radwan.

According to state news agency Sana, the army “clashed directly with the IS terrorist organisation, which had abducted women and children from the Sweida province”.

Government troops “were able to liberate all the 19 hostages and kill the terrorist kidnappers”, it added.

Syrian television broadcast images of veiled women, boys, and at least one girl surrounded by men in military uniforms near a white pick-up truck in a desert landscape. It said the images were broadcast from the desert near the ancient city of Palmyra in the centre of the country.

In Sweida, Jawdat Abu Omar was in his car rushing to the provincial capital to see his wife, eight-year-old daughter Shahad, and 13-year-old son Qusay.

“I can’t even describe how I’m feeling. I’ve never felt this happy in my life,” he told AFP over the phone.

“We’ll be waiting for them,” he said.

IS jihadists abducted about 30 people – mostly women and children – from Sweida late July during the deadliest attack of the seven-year civil war on Syria’s Druze community.

Radwan said the women and children were freed in a prisoner exchange deal.

“The freeing of the remaining hostages came as part of a prisoner swap deal, and today was the second stage of that deal,” he told AFP.

Two women and four children were released last month in a first step of the same agreement that also saw women and children related to IS fighters freed from regime jails, he said. — AFP

People inspect the damage at the site of a car bomb that killed three people in Iraq’s Mosul yesterday, the first such attack since jihadists were ousted from the city last year. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. The Islamic State group, which once controlled a cross-border ‘caliphate’ home to millions of people, lost control of Mosul and the rest of its urban strongholds in 2017 but it has continued to wage guerilla-style attacks across Iraq. — AFP photo

Photo shows people celebrating and waving the national flag in in the southern city of Sweida as they wait to welcome the recently freed hostages. — AFP photo