HRW: ISIS holding children hostage

ISIS militiamen are holding at least 27 people hostage, including at least 16 children, in southern Syria, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday (August 25). Local residents say that ISIS is holding the hostages in the eastern region of the Sweida desert and hoping to use them as leverage in negotiations with the Assad regime and Russia.

ISIS kidnapped the residents during a July 25, 2018 attack in the Sweida governorate, which is under Assad control. Earlier in August, ISIS beheaded one hostage, and another died under unclear circumstances. Hostage-taking is a war crime and ISIS should immediately release the hostages.

“For a month now, families of the kidnapped Sweida have been calling for the release of their loved ones,” said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Civilian lives should not be used as bargaining chips, and ISIS should release all the hostages immediately.”

Human Rights Watch spoke to four witnesses and relatives of those kidnapped from al-Shbeki, one of the villages ISIS attacked. Witnesses and relatives of victims provided the names of at least 27 people kidnapped, and of 57 people killed in the attack. According to local activists, 16 children between ages 7 and 15 were among those kidnapped.

Hostage-taking is defined as detaining people and then threatening to compel a third party to carry out or abstain from specific acts as an explicit or implicit condition for the hostages’ release or safety. It is a war crime.