In Syria, funerals for 216 people
BEIRUT — Mourners in Syria attended funerals Thursday for least 216 people killed in Islamic State attacks on a peaceful city and its surrounding countryside. In the area’s worst violence since the conflict began, militants also abducted 18 people, activists said.
The attacks on Sweida and surrounding villages evoked the days of heavy IS violence in Syria and Iraq during the group’s heyday in 2014 and 2015. The abduction of civilians is in line with the group’s tactic of taking hostages and using women as sex slaves.
A mass funeral was held in Sweida — the city was covered in black and shops were closed to mourn.
Until this week, Sweida mostly avoided violence that has hit Syria since 2011.
As Syria’s civil war took increasingly sectarian undertones, pitting the Sunni opposition against the mostly Alawite ruling class, the Druze minority stayed on the sidelines. Druze community leaders in Sweida took a firm position against entering the war, resisting enrolling their sons in the army. The Druze, followers of an offshoot of Islam, have kepttheir own local militias.
The attacks Wednesday sparked criticism of the government for failing to protect the minority group.
Diana Semaan, a researcher at Amnesty International, said there were signs that no government troops were present to provide protection.
“We call on all sides to prioritize the protection of civilians. This didn’t happen,” Ms. Semaan said.
The attacks came amid a government offensive. Syrian forces are battling an ISlinked group near Israelioccupied Golan Heights and the Jordanian border. The group has a presence on the eastern edge of Sweida.
The militants launched their offensive with suicide bombings Wednesday. The militants also swarmed villages in the province’s northeast. Some shot residents as they slept, according to activist-operated Facebook pageSweida News Network.
Hassan Omar, a government health official, said Thursday at least 150 people were also wounded.
SNN shared the names of those abducted from nearby Shabki. Most are women.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said dozens were taken from their homes and that details remained unclear. The Observatory put the death toll at 246, including 111 members of local militias. At least 135 civilians were killed.
Since a June offensive, President Bashar Assad’s forces have retaken territories controlled by rebels and are now fighting militants in Syria’s southern tip.
On Thursday afternoon, Syrian troops entered Quneitra and reached the frontier with the Israeli-occupied part of the Golan Heights, where the Syrian Central Military Media said they raised the Syrian flag.
Syrian state TV also reported the capture of nearby Sahem al-Golan.
ISIS has been largely defeated, but still has pockets of controlled territory in eastern and southern Syria.
In a statement posted on IS social media, it said militants clashed with Syrian troops and militias. It mentioned nothing about attacking civilians .
The group posted no death toll for its own men, but the Observatory said at least 56 IS militants were killed.