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 fossil, placed at the Grand Atrium in The Dubai Mall, was unveiled for the public Monday. It dates back to the late Jurassic period and is 24.4 metres long and 7.6 metres high
The missing Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines plane could not be traced for the fourth day Tuesday even as the Interpol ruled out a terror hand behind the incident
40 ships and 34 aircrafts are actively searching for the missing Malaysian jet. After three days, no concrete evidence has been found to provide a conclusion for the plane’s disappearance. Oil slicks were traced North East of Kota Baru, Malaysia, but still no debris, or signs of a fatal crash.
Myanmar will be presented the award of World's Best Tourist Destination for 2014 by the European Union Council on Tourism and Trade soon, media reported Sunday.
