ISIS frees six Druze hostages for swap and $27m ransom
Two women and four children from the province of Sweida were released last night RAMI ABDULRAHMAN Director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
ISIS in Syria has released six of 27 Druze hostages in a prisoner swap that also included a $27 million ransom.
The group abducted about 30 people, mostly women and children, from Sweida in late July during the deadliest attack on Syria’s Druze community in the seven-year civil war.
Families of the hostages led protests outside government offices in Sweida this month to demand more be done to secure their release.
“Two women and four children from the province of Sweida were released last night,” said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in Britain.
Mr Abdulrahman said the release was the “first wave” as part of an agreement with the Syrian government to exchange all the hostages for 60 ISIS prisoners and a ransom of $27m (Dh99.1m).
More hostages were expected to be released “in the next few days or hours”, he said.
In the co-ordinated assaults on July 25, ISIS killed more than 250 people – most of them civilians – across the south-western province in suicide bombings, shootings and stabbings.
Sweida is the heartland of the country’s Druze minority that made up about three per cent of Syria’s pre-war population – or about 700,000 people.
ISIS executed a male student, 19, among the captives in August and then a female hostage, 25, early this month. The group said another female captive, 65, died from illness.
In Damascus on Friday, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad met representatives of Russia’s foreign and defence ministries, Moscow said.
During the meeting, they discussed developments of the situation in Syria and reaffirmed their commitment to the “destruction of terrorist presence” and the advancement towards a long-term political settlement in the interest of all Syrians.
Russia’s defence minister said that almost 88,000 rebels had been killed in Syria in the three years since Moscow’s intervention to back government forces.
“Over the course of the operation, a total of more than 87,500 rebels have been eliminated, 1,411 settlements have been liberated and more than 95 per cent of Syria’s territory,” Sergey Shoigu said. “Most of the rebels have been liquidated.”
Russia launched strikes in support of Mr Al Assad’s regime in September 2015. Since then Russian air forces have carried out more than 40,000 bombing missions, hitting about 120,000 targets of “terrorist” infrastructure, Mr Shoigu said.
Meanwhile in eastern Syria, air strikes by the US-led coalition fighting ISIS have killed at least 32 civilians in less than 24 hours, the Observatory said on Friday.
Strikes on the village of Sousa killed 18 civilians including seven children late on Thursday, and 14 more civilians on Friday, it said.
Dozens were wounded and many remained under the rubble in the village in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor near the Iraqi border, Mr Abdulrahman said.
An estimated 35 militants were also killed during the offensive.
And twenty-eight ISIS members were killed in air strikes by the US-led coalition around the town of Hajin, the Observatory said.
Another seven militants were killed in fighting against the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Clashes have killed 414 militants and 227 SDF fighters in total since the assault began on September 10, the Observatory said. Nine ISIS fighters died in the raids, it said.
ISIS overran large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a “caliphate”.
They have since lost most of it to battles in both countries. In Syria, the group has had its presence reduced to parts of the vast Badia desert and a pocket in Deir Ezzor that includes Sousa.
A Kurdish-Arab alliance backed by the coalition last month launched an offensive to wrest back the Deir Ezzor pocket from ISIS.
Since 2014 the coalition has acknowledged direct responsibility for more than 1,100 civilian deaths in Syria and Iraq, but rights groups put the number much higher. The Observatory says coalition strikes in Syria have killed more than 3,300 civilians.
Syria’s war has killed more than 360,000 people since it began in 2011.