The Islamic State (IS) militants on Sunday released 19 Christian Assyrians they had kidnapped last month, a monitoring group reported.
The 19 people are the first batch of 29 Assyrians the sharia court of the IS exonerated on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, Xinhua reported.
On February 23, the IS abducted 220 Christian Assyrians during an assault it had waged on predominantly Assyrian areas, mainly in the area of Tal Tamr and its countryside in Syria's northeastern province of al-Hasakah.
The fate of the other abductees is still unknown amid reports that the rest of the Assyrians are awaiting trials in the IS courts.
There is no clear reason why would the IS even put the Assyrians on trial.
Also on Sunday, the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said the Syrian troops captured as many as 33 towns in the eastern countryside of Hasaka after clashes with the IS.
US President Barack Obama Thursday invoked India's example to make a plea for religious freedom and how faith leads people to do good and what's right but that faith also can be twisted to be used as a weapon.
Pilot Amritpal Singh, 29, and his passenger were killed instantly when Singh's Cessna 150K crashed into a wheat field shortly after midnight May 31, USA Today reported. The wreckage was discovered around 7:30 that morning.
The British Sikh community has launched a first-of-its-kind political campaign targeting 50 seats nationwide, including three in west London, for the impending 2015 general elections.
A US court has found an Indian American woman guilty on charges of foeticide and felony neglect of a dependent after experiencing a miscarriage or what prosecutors claim was actually an illegal abortion.
VATICAN CITY, Italy — Montreal mayor Denis Coderre met with Pope Francis at the Vatican Wednesday to personally invite him to attend the city's 375th anniversary celebrations in 2017.
