DAMASCUS, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Family members of the hostages taken by the Islamic State (IS) staged a sit-in on Thursday in the southern city of Sweida, calling for international help to secure their release.
The crowd, who gathered in front of the municipal building, staged the sit-in in a bid to attract international attention to the hostages snatched from the town of Shebki during a surprise IS attack on July 25.
Over 30 people, mostly women and children, were hustled to an unknown destination during the attack, in which over 260 others were killed. This is the deadliest IS attack in Sweida during the country's seven-year war.
The sit-in came as the killing of a 19-year-old young man by IS and the death of a 25-year-old woman, amid faltering negotiations between the Syrian government and IS.
The demonstrators carried photos of the kidnapped to deliver a message to the international organizations, calling for their help to secure the release of their kidnapped relatives.
On protester identified as Sami said the group hoped to "make our voice heard that our relatives should be set free."
He lamented the lack of international concern about the lives of the hostages in the hands of IS.
Shaima, a 25-year-old protester, held a photo of a kidnapped child. "What is the guilt of those kids to remain in the hands of Daesh," Shaima said, using the Arabic acronym of the IS.
The participants said their sit-in was an open one that would last for days until they see a result.
Their move came after the killing of Thuraya Abu Ammar, a 25-year-old single woman, who was among the hostages.
The IS militants first executed a 19-year-old man, and later a woman was said to have died due to her worsening medical condition while in IS captivity.
The execution of the woman was held at a very sensitive time as reports emerged that there was progress in the negotiations between the IS and the Syrian government through mediators.
Druze local fighters also released 27 people who are relatives to IS fighters as a goodwill gesture to seek the release of the Sweida hostages.
Those relatives were taken after the IS kidnapped the hostages from the town of Shebki in the eastern countryside of Sweida.
Meanwhile, the Syrian army has advanced in the battles against IS in the Tulol al-Safa hills, where the IS has been surrounded.
Sweida, which is predominantly inhabited by the Druze minority, has been largely safe during the country's seven-year civil war, except for the countryside of Sweida, as IS controlled parts of it near the desert.
The Syrian army has recently captured the provinces of Quneitra and Daraa in southern Syria, and the recapture of the al-Safa hilltops will mark the liberation of the entire southwestern region.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said Thursday that at least 311 IS militants and 166 Syrian soldiers have been killed since July 25 in the battles in Sweida amid an ongoing military showdown in the Tulol al-Safa hills.
