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.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday Moscow may retaliate against Western sanctions if those countries continue confrontation, indicating possible blow to such payment systems as Visa and MasterCard.
Two workers at a Florida hospital, who came into contact with a US imported case of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus, have fallen ill and one of them has been hospitalised, a hospital spokesperson said
Contrary to popular belief, the Tibetan Plateau, or the roof of the world, could be there even before the Himalayas, a study of fossils and oxygen isotopes of rocks in the southern parts of Tibet has said.
Relatives and friends of some of the abducted Nigerian schoolgirls have identified them from a video released by Boko Haram militants, BBC reported Tuesday.
