Kurds oust ISIS from Christian villages in Syria
Kurdish forces have driven ISIS from more than a dozen Assyrian Christian villages that the jihadis had captured in northeastern Syria, an activist group said Wednesday, AFP reports.
"Following a 10-day offensive, Kurdish fighters took control early this week of 14 Assyrian villages that ISIS had controlled since February," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Assyrian Christians, who are from one of the world's oldest Christian communities, have been under increasing threat since ISIS seized control of large parts of Syria.
Osama Edward, head of the Sweden-based Assyrian Network for Human Rights, said that the Kurds' recapture of the villages "was made possible by intense raids by the international coalition" led by the United States against ISIS.