Islamic State (IS) group militants have abducted about 900 Kurdish civilians in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo over the past three weeks, forcing the captives to build fortifications for the militants in retaliation for a Kurdish-led assault on a nearby IS stronghold, activists said on Friday.
Reports also emerged on Friday that at least 26 of those abducted have been killed for refusing to follow IS orders.
The abductions come amid fierce fighting for control of Manbij — a key IS stronghold in Aleppo Province — where the militants are being routed from the town center by the predominantly Kurdish and US-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF).
Some of the abducted Kurds have been pressganged into digging trenches and shelters for the IS, Kurdish media activist Rezan Hiddo said, while others have been forced to wear IS uniforms and ordered to fight at the fronts.
On Friday, the mostly Kurdish SDF battled IS militants inside Manbij after having encircling the stronghold in a weeks-long offensive that has been backed by US-coalition airstrikes.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported that coalition jets struck targets around the town. The SDF has lost 89 fighters since launching its campaign for Manbij on May 31, the Observatory said, adding that 463 IS militants have been killed.
The push by the SDF into Manbij has been slow as the US-backed fighters first focused on capturing dozens of villages and farms near the town in the past weeks.
The town lies along the only IS supply line between the Syrian-Turkish border to the north and the IS militants group’s self-styled capital of Raqqa, which lies to the southeast, in the IS-held neighboring Raqqa Province.
If Manbij is captured, it would be the biggest strategic defeat for the IS in Syria since July last year, when the group lost the border town of Tal Abyad.
The US has embedded 300 special forces operators with the SDF. The White House says they are advisers.
French special forces operators are also embedded with the group.
SDF spokesman Sherfan Darwish told reporters that the IS militants began abducting Kurdish civilians in retaliation the offensive on Manbij.
“Whenever DAESH [another name for the Islamic State group] is defeated, they retaliate against civilians,” Darwish said, adding that whole families among those taken.
The abductions have been taking place mostly in areas under IS control, from the western Manbij countryside to the towns of al-Bab and al-Rai, according to Hiddo.
He said the ongoing campaign has prompted families to flee the towns in fear.
The Observatory and Darwish said some of those taken captive have been forced to dig trenches in IS-held areas while others are imprisoned in IS-run detention centers.
Darwish said all captured males above the age of 12 were sent against their will to the front lines to help fortify IS positions.
The militants have killed 26 of the captives for resisting detention or refusing orders, according to Hiddo.
His report could not be independently confirmed and the IS group made no immediate claim over the abductions or the killings.
Many of the civilians are being held in an IS prison in Qabasin, Hiddo said.
Those forced into labor are digging fortifications underneath homes in al-Bab.
“They [IS] are digging a city underneath the town to protect themselves from airstrikes,” Hiddo added.
The IS has not engaged in any negotiations for the release of Kurdish civilians, nor asked for any ransom, Hiddo said.
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