IS kidnaps 344 workers northeast of Damascus

[webfact]

IS kidnaps 344 workers northeast of Damascus
Source: Xinhua

DAMASCUS, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic State (IS) militants are believed to have kidnapped 344 Syrian workers and employees from a cement factory near Damascus, the pro-government Sham FM radio reported on Wednesday.

The IS militants attacked the cement factory in the town of Dumair northeast of the capital Damascus, and herded the abductees to an unknown destination on Monday afternoon.

All the hostages were civilians, said the report, adding that the factory is privately owned, not government-run.

Full story: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-04/07/c_135256405.htm

-- Xinhua 2016-04-07

[Credo]

I do hope they are safe and will be released. I hope this isn't a continuation of the slave trade.

[wabothai]

time to call in the troops.

[webfact]

IS militants abduct 300 cement workers near Syrian capital
By ZEINA KARAM

BEIRUT (AP) — In a brazen assault near the Syrian capital, Islamic State militants on Thursday abducted 300 cement workers and contractors in an area northeast of Damascus, Syrian state TV reported as fighting elsewhere in the country also worsened.

Meanwhile, the U.N. special envoy for Syria said the next round of peace talks in Geneva was expected to start next week, around April 13. Staffan de Mistura said the new round should focus on a political process that he hoped would lead to a "concrete or real beginning of a political transition."

State TV said Thursday's mass abduction of workers from the al-Badia Cement Company took place in Dumeir, an area where militants launched a surprise attack against government forces earlier this week. State-run news agency SANA quoted a source in the company as saying that there has been no success in efforts to establish contact with any of the workers.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syria conflict, said earlier in the day that contact was lost with dozens of workers in Dumeir.

No further details of the abduction were immediately known and there has been no claim of responsibility. Mass abductions have taken place on occasion in Syria during the country's devastating civil war, now in its sixth year, most often of religious minorities such as Christians.

The abduction came as fighting with IS militants raged in northern Syria on Thursday. Syrian opposition fighters have advanced on strongholds of the Islamic State group, including the IS-held town of al-Rai in northern Aleppo along the border with Turkey.

De Mistura told reporters in Geneva that he is also embarking on a tour that will take him to Damascus and the Iranian capital of Tehran and possibly also the Jordanian capital, Amman, in search of an understanding about what could be a framework of a political transition.

Two rounds of "proximity talks" involving Syrian opposition and government representatives in Geneva have ended without any progress on ways to end the war in Syria, now in its sixth year.

Earlier Thursday, Jan Egeland, de Mistura's humanitarian aid adviser, said he is "disappointed" with recent efforts to get aid convoys into hard-to-reach and besieged areas, and called on the government to "live up to its promises."

Also speaking in Geneva, Egeland told reporters that "April was supposed to be our best month" but that aid delivery is "not getting better and better, it's actually slowing down."

Humanitarian assistance to Syria's people is part of an international response to the country's crisis that also includes a U.S.-Russia-brokered cease-fire that has largely held over the last month.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-04-08

[mrwebb8825]

"Staffan de Mistura said the new round should focus on a political process that he hoped would lead to a "concrete or real beginning of a political transition."

Bad pun intended or freudian slip of where he truly lays his loyalty?

[ggt]

My suspicion is that there will be a large number of gold covered concrete bars...showing up at precious metals sales soon...

[rosst]

This will be needed to replace the lost income from the lost oil sales.

When is it time to squash them like the cockroaches they are??

Time for gunboat negotiations. Make war on civilians ? Absolute filth, the worst kind of undisciplined cowardly rabble.