Beirut: Daesh militants killed at least 30 people in a Syrian village near the city of Hama overnight, a group monitoring the war said, part of a pattern of attacks by the ultra-radical force in government-held areas of western Syria.
A Syrian military source said the army had repelled the assault on Mabouja, a 60-km (40 mile) drive east of the city of Hama. He said the hardline group had massacred civilians there, but did not have a number for the dead.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which uses a network of contacts to monitor the four-year-old civil war, said Daesh militants had killed entire families and the dead included people who had been burnt to death.
The population includes Alawites and Ismailis -- sects deemed heretical by Daesh’s heretical view of Islam, said Rami Abdul Rahman, who runs the Observatory.
Alawites, Ismailis and Sunni residents were among the dead, he said.
The area is some 200 km from Raqqa -- the de facto capital of Daesh’s self-declared caliphate that spans territory in both Syria and Iraq. It is part of the western region where Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has sought to shore up his control.
Al Assad, an Alawite, enjoys backing among many members of Syrian minority communities who fear hardline Islamists.
Daesh militants have mounted numerous attacks in government-held areas in the provinces of Hama and Homs in recent weeks, even as it has lost ground in the north and northeast under pressure from a Kurdish militia backed by US-led air strikes.
The military source said: “Daesh tried to attack the village, and this attack was repelled, and a large number of Daesh terrorists were killed. And now the Syrian army is imposing its control over the village.”
“Daesh is making a lot of attempts (to advance) east of Hama. It is trying a lot in that area, particularly after its loss in Shaar field,” he said, referring to a gas field in Homs province reclaimed by the government in recent months.
