Ribal Al-Assad condemns kidnap of 193 Kurds in Syria
Saturday, 31 May 2014
Jihadists kidnap 193 Kurds in Syria
SBS NEWS
Syria's most extremist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has kidnapped nearly 200 Kurdish civilians from the Aleppo area, a monitor says.
"Fighters from ISIL on Thursday kidnapped at least 193 Kurdish civilians aged from 17 to 70 years from the village of Qabasin in Aleppo province," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the reasons behind their kidnapping were "unknown, but this kind of act takes place repeatedly in areas under ISIL control."
Rooted in al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Islamist militants first surfaced in the Syrian war in late spring last year.
Syria's Kurdish militias started fighting ISIL from very early on, as soon as the jihadists started pushing to take over resource-rich, Kurdish areas dotted around the country's north and northeast.
Rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad's regime initially welcomed the jihadists, but then turned against them because of their systematic abuses and quest for hegemony.
Al-Qaeda's official Syria branch - the Al-Nusra Front - has also turned against ISIL since.
ISIL is seeking to set up an Islamic state under its control along the Syrian border with Iraq.
Condemning the attack, ODFS Director, Ribal Al-Assad said:
"I am tremendously concerned to hear of this recent kidnapping, the ISIL are a terrorist organisation with an extreme ideology and a proven record of extremely violent behaviour.
Unfortunately this does however come as no surprise, we have seen over the past couple of years the systematic targeting of minority groups in Syria by Islamist rebel groups - they have sought to attack all those who do not conform to their narrow and perverted ideology.
The ISIL, like all other Islamist rebel forces, are completely uncontrollable, they have no boundaries and will murder all those who do not share their perverted ideology."
The international community must do more to crack down on these groups, otherwise heinous acts like this kidnapping will only continue.
I call for the safe return of those kidnapped, my thoughts and prayers are with them at this time."