Islamic State kills villagers, captures fighters in Deir al-Zor
Islamic State militants killed nearly 20 people including two children in a village in Syria’s eastern Deir al-Zor province, and captured fighters participating in a U.S.-backed operation against the jihadists, a monitoring group said on Saturday.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants had raided the village of Jizrat al-Boushams, northwest of Deir al-Zor city and near the provincial boundary with Raqqa on Friday.
The Observatory posted a video showing the corpses of around a dozen men who had apparently been shot. Reuters could not verify the video’s authenticity.
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Islamic State withdrew from the village after the attack taking the captured fighters, it said.
The ultra-hardline group has staged attacks on villages near areas it controls as it is being pushed back towards its strongholds of Raqqa and Deir al-Zor.
Separate forces are fighting the Islamists, who are enemies of all other sides in the Syrian conflict, including U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters, and Russian-backed Syrian forces.
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