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.
The first ever Indian-American Miss America, Nina Davuluri, has come to the defence of a teen who asked her to a dance as the news of his suspension for the stunt reached the White House.
At least four people were killed and 33 injured Tuesday when a bomb exploded near a police vehicle in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police and eyewitnesses said.
Passengers of the Malaysian Airlines plane that had a landing gear snag late Sunday recalled their three hours of scary moments midair on arrival here from Kuala Lumpur Monday evening.
A teenager stowaway in the US survived a 3,700-km flight from San Jose in California to Hawaii hiding in the landing gear of a jetliner, the media reported Monday.
