ISIS abducts at least 400 civilians in eastern Syria

ISIS abducted at least 400 civilians including women and children after capturing new territory in an assault on Syria’s eastern city of Deir el-Zour.

According to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a group which monitors the violence on all sides of the Syrian conflict, 135 were killed in the assault and at least 80 of them were soldiers and pro-government militiamen and the rest were civilians.

The Observatory added that the advance puts ISIS in control of around 60 percent of Deir Ezzor city, capital of the province of the same name in an oil-rich region bordering Iraq.

However, ISIS-affiliated Aamaq news agency had reported a large-scale multi-pronged attack on Deir el-Zour that began with a suicide bombing.

Opposition activists said Russian warplanes were carrying out intensive airstrikes in support of government forces in the area.

Government-held areas of the eastern Syrian city have been under siege by ISIS forces for over a year and more than 200,000 people there are living in horrid conditions and lack food and medicine.