Dozens to hundreds of Christians have been captured by the Islamic State near the Syrian village Qaryatain, according to numerous reports.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that a total of some 230 people were missing since a conflict between ISIS militants and Syrian forces in Homs, an area near the village Qaryatain in central Syria that took place on Tuesday (Aug. 4), and that approximately 60 of them were Christians. About half of the Christian captives were released, Osama Edward, the director of the Christian Assyrian Network for Human Rights in Syria, told the Associated Press.
The rest of the captives, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, are Sunni Muslims.
Others, however, report that hundreds of Christians were missing since the conflict. According to Nuri Kino, the President of Demand for Action, an organization that focuses on helping religious minorities in Syria, said that 230 Christians went missing since the conflict. Similarly, the Syrian Orthodox Archdiocese of the region said that 250 Christians have been missing, according to a report by the New York Times.
"We don't know if they are alive or dead," the Syrian Orthodox Archdiocese told the Times.
Reports say that communication with people within the town is difficult, making it difficult to know the exact number of Christians and total individuals taken captive, and the conditions within the village.
"We have no communication with them, as land lines and mobile lines are being cut off," Bishop Philip Barakat, an Episcopal vicar in Homs, told the Wall Street Journal.
ISIS took control of Qaryatain on Thursday, which has a population of some 40,000 individuals of religious minorities, primarily Sunni Muslims and Christians. ISIS has been known to take religious minorities captive, and has previously publicized the slaughter of such individuals, including the deaths of Egyptian Coptic Christians that were shown to the public through video footage posted online earlier this year.
