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.
A senior UN official Thursday urged Afghans to use the presidential and provincial council elections two days hence to shape the future of the country through peaceful, democratic means.
No sightings were reported at the conclusion of Wednesday's search operation in the southern Indian Ocean for the “lost” Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 even as a senior Malaysian official said that all passengers on board the jet have been “cleared” in a criminal investigation that is being conducted.
Britain's military headquarters in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan has been disbanded after eight years of frontline operations, the British defence ministry announced Wednesday.
Tsunami waves generated by an earthquake measuring 8.3 on the Richter Scale that hit off the Chile coast Tuesday struck some areas in the north of the country.
NATO foreign ministers have agreed to suspend "all practical civilian and military cooperation" with Russia over its annexation of Crimea, as the Western military alliance saw "no sign" that Russia is pulling its forces back from the border with Ukraine.
The US is getting the welcome mat out for whoever may be India's new prime minister, including the Bharatiya Janata Party's Narendra Modi, as the law automatically entitles a head of government to a US visa.
