ICC Note: According to an Assyrian officer, ISIS is demanding a ransom up to $30 million for 250-300 Christians being held hostage in Syria. The ransoms are said to equal $100,000 per person released. The hostages were captured by the terror group in February and negotiations are currently taking place between ISIS and Assyrian leadership.
By Lisa Daftari
04/09/2015 Syria (Fox News) – Islamic State militants are demanding up to $30 million in ransom to release the hundreds of Christian hostages in Syria, according to an officer within the Assyrian leadership.
In ongoing negotiations between ISIS terrorists and the Assyrian leadership to free the 250-300 Christians abducted by the militant group in February, ISIS is demanding $100,000 per individual, according to the source.
Third-party Syrian Sunni Muslims from the local area are reported to be brokering the talks between the two groups.
“They know we cannot come up with this kind of money, so they are hoping other groups and countries will come up with the money,” the official said.
A total of 23 hostages have been released to date, while the rest remain in ISIS custody after a Feb. 23 attack on villages in the northern province of al Hasakah.
The reason for those releases was not known, but according to some of the freed hostages, they were prohibited from going back to their homes in Syria and instead told to leave the country.
The Feb. 23 attack was a coordinated raid on 35 Assyrian villages in the Hasaka province, an area where the native Christian community thrived for generations.
Nine Assyrian fighters were killed attempting to defend their villages.
In late January, there were similar reports of a raid by the Islamic State on the same area,and threats to bomb churches if crosses were not removed.
The Islamic State has desecrated churches and Christian graveyards in wholesale fashion in both Iraq and Syria.
