Hundreds of Assyrians march in Downtown Beirut against the ISIS abduction of Assyrians in Syria, Saturday, Feb 28, 2015. (The Daily Star/Hassan Shaaban)
BEIRUT: Hundreds of Assyrians marched in Downtown Beirut Saturday in solidarity with their brethren abducted by ISIS in Syria earlier this week.
The marchers chanted slogans in their native language and carried signs that read: “Assyrians are the indigenous people of Mesopotamia,” “We demand action from the United Nations,” and “Save the Christians in the Middle East.”
The protesters began their afternoon march at Martyr’s Square and headed towards the U.N.’s nearby ESCWA building.
An activists group earlier this week reported that no less than 220 Assyrian Christians were abducted from their homes by ISIS in northeastern Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said they were kidnapped from 11 villages in the Hassakeh province, and that thousands more have fled their homes to avoid capture.
But on Saturday, the Observatory said that 29 of the kidnap victims were ordered released by an ISIS Sharia cout in the countryside of Tal Tamer.
An Assyrian commander “confirmed to SOHR that they communicated with [ISIS] through mediation with [ISIS] jurists who informed us that the kidnapped Assyrians of the other villages will be brought in front of the Sharia courts to decide on their verdict,” the group wrote in a statement posted to its website.