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 Russian State Duma or lower house of parliament Thursday approved a federal law on the accession of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, where the Russian Black Sea fleet is based.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced Thursday that objects possibly related to the Malaysian airliner that went missing March 8 have been found in the southern Indian Ocean.
Pro-Russian forces Wednesday captured the Ukrainian naval headquarters in Crimea even as UN chief Ban Ki-moon got ready for a visit to Russia and Ukraine.
Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Yarema and Defence Minister Igor Tenyukh have been barred from entering Crimea, the Minister of Social Policy Lyudmila Denisova said Wednesday.
Eyewitnesses from the Kuda Huvadhoo concurred that the plane was traveling north to southeast, towards the southern tip of the Addu atoll. They also spoke about the incredibly loud noise that the flight made when it flew over the island.
The search corridors for the Malaysian Airlines passenger plane that went missing March 8, have been narrowed, acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said Tuesday at a press briefing here.
