BEIRUT — Hundreds of Christian families have fled a central Syrian town as Daesh (so-called IS) fighters advance toward it, activists said Saturday, the anniversary of the US beginning airstrikes against the extremists in Iraq. A US-led coalition has conducted nearly 6,000 airstrikes against the Daesh group, expanding its operations to target the extremists in Syria as well. But a year later, the Daesh group remains able to launch attacks across its self-declared "caliphate" in both countries, despite some gains by Kurdish fighters and allied Iraqi forces.
Meanwhile, searches continued in Egypt for a missing Croatian hostage that a Daesh affiliate had threatened to kill. On Saturday, Osama Edward, the director of the Christian Assyrian Network for Human Rights in Syria, said "hundreds of families" have fled the Christian town of Sadad toward the government-held central city of Homs and the capital, Damascus.
Syria-based activist Bebars Al-Talawy said intense clashes took place Saturday near the central town of Qaryatain, which the Daesh group captured on Thursday. Qaryatain is about 25 kms (15 miles) southeast of Sadad. Qaryatain lies in the middle of a triangle formed by the cities of Homs, Palmyra and Damascus. Activists say it has a mixed population of around 40,000 Sunni Muslims and Christians, as well as thousands of internally displaced people who earlier fled Homs.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday's fighting concentrated in an area between Qaryatain and the village of Mheen, which is halfway to Sadad. The Observatory said Syrian troops shelled the area and government warplanes conducted several airstrikes on areas outside Qaryatain. Sadad was captured briefly in 2013 by members of Al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, and was retaken later by government forces.
"People are living in fear in the area," Edward said. He said many Christians around Sadad fear what happened to ethnic Yazidis in Iraq and other Christians in Daesh-controlled territory could happen to them: Choosing between fleeing, converting to Islam or facing death. The threat to Yazidis in Iraq prompted US President Barack Obama to begin US airstrikes targeting the Daesh group in Iraq on Aug. 8, 2014.
Activists said the Daesh group abducted 230 residents, including dozens of Christians, from Qaryatain in recent days. Activists say some Christians were released, though the fate of the others is still unknown. Christians make up about 10 percent of Syria's prewar population of 23 million people. In February, Daesh fighters kidnapped more than 220 Assyrian Christians after overrunning several farming communities on the southern bank of the Khabur River in the northeastern province of Hassakeh. Since then, only a few have been released and the fate of the others remains unknown.
In northern Syria, Nusra Front members left their positions on the border with Turkey in Aleppo province and were replaced by members of the Shamia Front, or Levant Front, which is a coalition of several insurgent groups, according to the Observatory. The reason for their move wasn't clear, though that area is where Turkish and US officials plan to create a Daesh-free zone near Turkey's border. Syria's crisis, which began in March 2011, has killed more than 250,000 people and wounded more than 1 million. — AP
