\n At least 27 people are being held by the Islamic State group in southern Syria, Human Rights Watch said Saturday as it deplored the hostage-taking as a \"war crime\".\n<\/p>\n
\n The group of mostly women and children were abducted by IS during a massive July 25 assault on the Druze community in Sweida, in which the jihadists killed more than 250 people.\n<\/p>\n
\n They are being held by IS to use as leverage in negotiations with the Syrian government and its ally Russia, according to HRW.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Hostage-taking is a war crime,\" the rights group said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Civilian lives should not be used as bargaining chips,\" said its deputy Middle East director Lama Fakih.\n<\/p>\n
\n Of more than 30 people taken hostage in the July offensive, at least two have since died.\n<\/p>\n
\n A 19-year-old male student was beheaded and a video circulated of the killing, which was not released on the jihadists' usual channels.\n<\/p>\n
\n Later in August a 65-year-old woman died, with IS reporting she had been unwell.\n<\/p>\n
\n Additionally, two women were able to escape after being abducted from their home, a family member told HRW.\n<\/p>\n
\n Villagers provided the names of at least 27 people who remain in IS captivity, with children as young as seven among them, according to activists in Sweida province.\n<\/p>\n
\n The province is the heartland of Syria's Druze minority, followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam who are are despised as heretics by the Sunni extremists of IS.\n<\/p>\n
\n IS is seeking the release of jihadists captured by the government in the neighbouring province of Daraa, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said earlier this month.\n<\/p>\n
\n The jihadists currently hold less than three percent of Syria, after losing swathes of territory to government forces backed by Russian firepower.\n<\/p>\n
\n But IS has proven it is still able to launch deadly attacks, with eight pro-government fighters killed and more than 60 wounded in an overnight raid in Sweida province.\n<\/p>\n
\n The attack brought to 54 the number of pro-government fighters killed in the past month, while 147 jihadsts have been killed, the Observatory said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Since the civil war erupted in Syria in 2011, more than 350,000 people have been killed and millions have fled their homes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At least 27 people are being held by the Islamic State group in southern Syria, Human Rights Watch said Saturday as it deplored the hostage-taking as a \"war crime\". The group of mostly women and children were abducted by IS during a massive July 25 assault on the Druze community in Sweida, in which the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-38529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n