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Kurdish militia pressed a big offensive against ISIS in northeast Syria Wednesday, cutting one of its supply lines from Iraq, as fears mounted for dozens of Christians abducted by the hardline group that recently beheaded 21 Egyptian Copts, Reuters reported.

The Syriac National Council of Syria says ISIS seized 150 Assyrian Christians from villages in Hasakeh province in a mass abduction coinciding with the offensive in the same region by Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes.

Hundreds more Christians have fled to the two main cities in Hasakeh province, according to the Syriac council and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is tracking the conflict.

ISIS has killed members of religious minorities and Sunni Muslims who do not swear allegiance to its self-declared "caliphate." The group last week released a video showing its members beheading 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya.

The abductions in Syria follow advances by Kurdish forces against ISIS in areas of the northeast near the Iraqi border - an area of vital importance to the group as one of the bridges between land it controls in Iraq and Syria.

"They want to show themselves strong, playing on the religion string, at a time when they are being hit hard," said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the British-based Observatory, speaking by telephone.