BFF-95 Pro-regime Druze militia in Syria hangs IS member: monitor

991

ZCZC

BFF-95

SYRIA-CONFLICT-DRUZE-IS

Pro-regime Druze militia in Syria hangs IS member: monitor

BEIRUT, Aug 7, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Pro-government Druze militiamen hanged a
member of the Islamic State group in Syria’s Sweida on Tuesday, a monitor
said, just days after the jihadists executed a young hostage from the
minority group.

IS abducted more than 30 Druze civilians — women and their children —
from a remote village less than two weeks ago, during a brutal onslaught in
the southern province.

The hostage situation and beheading has sparked outrage among the Druze,
and on Tuesday a militia struck back.

“A member of IS was detained during an attack against a pro-regime position
in the Sweida countryside,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights.

During the assault, an IS suicide bomber killed four government loyalists
but other militia members managed to detain a second jihadist fighter.

“Druze militiamen loyal to the regime executed the IS fighter in one of the
public squares in Sweida city, by hanging,” said Abdel Rahman.

Sweida 24, a local news outlet, said the IS member had been caught Tuesday
morning in a desert area of the province.

Hundreds of people watched the execution, according to both the Observatory
and Sweida 24.

Sweida province is the heartland of the country’s Druze minority, which
made up around three percent of Syria’s pre-war population — or around
700,000 people.

On July 25, IS waged a series of suicide bombings, shootings, and stabbings
that left more than 250 people dead across the province, most of them
civilians.

It later emerged the jihadists had also kidnapped more than 30 Druze women
and their children during the attack.

While IS claimed responsibility for the violence, it has made no mention of
the abductions on its usual channels.

But local sources say the group is using the hostages as a bargaining chip
to pressure Syria’s government to release jihadists in its custody.

A top Druze religious official told AFP the negotiations were taking place
with Russian mediation, and in coordination with Syria’s regime.

BSS/AFP/MRI/2340 hrs