ISIS kidnaps dozens of Christians on 'most wanted' list

Islamic State (ISIS) militants have kidnapped dozens of Christians as part of a new offensive in a town near the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, according to Reuters.

Some of the Christian families were taken from the church in Qaryatain, others from checkpoints. Several were on a “most wanted” list, according to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

ISIS took Qaryatain, which sits near a road between Palmyra and the Qalamoun mountains, after a night of heavy fighting with the Syrian army. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have launched an effort to retake Palmyra and the surrounding areas but have so far not made much progress.

The group of kidnapped Christians includes 11 families, 45 women, and 19 children. ISIS militants took 230 people in all, and hundreds of other Christian and Muslim residents are missing, according to family members who live elsewhere and have lost touch with them.

According to the Assyrian Monitor for Human Rights, a Christian lobby group, at least 1,400 families fled Qaryatain before ISIS moved in. Last year, Islamic militant fighters kidnapped two priests from the town on the border with Lebanon. Father Yacoub Murad and Monk Petros ran two monasteries in the area.

They are just a few of the many Christians, including other priests, who have gone missing at the hands of ISIS. Human rights groups are still trying to figure out what happened to 250 Christians the militant jihadists took during raids on villages in northeastern Syria earlier this year.