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.
Over 70 Ukrainian military facilities on the Crimean peninsula have reportedly hoisted Russian flags as of midnight Thursday, including some navy ships of the Ukrainian Black Sea fleet.
The newly-proclaimed Republic of Crimea is scheduled to start using Russian rouble as its official currency from March 24, the republic's parliament speaker has revealed
The denunciation came in the light of a New York Times report published Wednesday stating Pakistan's then Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha knew where Bin Laden had been hiding, Xinhua reported
Chinese naval vessels were heading for the south Indian Ocean off the Australian coast Thursday after a fresh twist was given to the mystery of the missing Malaysian airliner with Australian authorities reporting that suspicious objects were found in the area.
