220 Christians abducted by IS

'Brutality' of taking dozens to be human shield condemned by UN Security Council

Syrian activists say the number of Christians abducted by Islamic State militants in northeastern Syria has risen to 220.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday the militants have picked up dozens more Christian Assyrians from 11 communities near the town of Tal Tamr, in Hassakeh province, in the past three days.

IS began abducting the Assyrians on Monday, when militants attacked a cluster of villages along the Khabur River, sending thousands of people fleeing to safer areas.

Younan Talia, a senior official with the Assyrian Democratic Organization, said IS had raided 33 Assyrian villages, picking up as many as 300 people along the way.

The UN Security Council strongly condemned on Wednesday the abduction.

"Such crimes once again demonstrate the brutality of Islamic State, which is responsible for thousands of crimes and abuses against people from all faiths, ethnicities and nationalities and without regard to any basic value of humanity," the council said in a statement.

The council demanded an "immediate and unconditional" release of all those abducted by Islamic State, Al-Nusra Front and all other individuals and groups associated with al-Qaida, stressing that those responsible for such acts must be held accountable.

In pre-dawn attacks, IS attacked on Monday communities nestled along the Khabur River, seizing at least 70 people, many of them women and children. Thousands of others fled to safer areas.

The fate of those kidnapped, almost all of them Assyrian Christians, remained unclear on Wednesday, two days after they were seized. Relatives of the group searched frantically for word on the fate of their loved ones, but none came.

"It's a tragedy. ... It is true what they say: history repeats itself," said Talia.

He was referring to the 1933 massacre by Iraqi government forces of Assyrians in Simele, a town in northern Iraq, after which the community fled to the Khabur region, and massacres against Armenian and Assyrian Christians under the Ottoman empire.

SANA News Agency and the Assyrian Network for Human Rights in Syria said the hostages have been moved to IS-controlled city of Shaddadeh, south of the city of Hassakeh. The United States and a coalition of regional partners are conducting a campaign of airstrikes against the group, and have on occasion struck Shaddadeh, a predominantly Arab town.

"In addition to its strategy of terrifying people, taking hostages to use as human shields to protect from coalition airstrikes is another of its goals," said Osama Edward, director of the Stockholm-based Assyrian Network for Human Rights in Syria.

The mass abduction added to fears among religious minorities in both Syria and Iraq, who have been repeatedly targeted by IS group. During the group's bloody campaign in both countries, where it has declared a self-styled caliphate, minorities have been repeatedly targeted and killed, driven from their homes, had their women enslaved and places of worship destroyed.

The White House condemned the attacks, saying the international community is united in its resolve to "end ISIL's depravity".

"We are watching a living history and all that comprises (it) disappear," wrote Mardean Isaac of A Demand for Action, an activist group that focuses on religious minorities in the Middle East.

He called for further airstrikes to assist those Assyrian and Kurdish forces fighting the militants in Syria.

The Assyrians are indigenous Christian people who trace their roots back to the ancient Mesopotamians.

AP - Xinhua