ISIS execute another three Assyrian Christians abducted in Syria
ACN Malta
ISIS has just released a video showing the execution of three Assyrian Christians in Syria on the morning of 23 September.The date is significant because it was the day Muslims commemorated Eid al-Adha, the “Festival of the Sacrifice”. No reason was given why ISIS waited so long to release the video, though its purpose appears to be to put pressure for the ransom ISIS demanded to be paid..
The three Assyrians appear in the video wearing orange jumpsuits and kneeling ;a minute later they were shot in the back of their heads. Before being killed they identified themselves as Basam Michael from the village of Tel Shamiran and Dr. Abdulmasih Enwiya and Ashur Abraham from the village of Tel Tamar, Jazira.
Three other Assyrian Christians are then shown kneeling behind the bodies of the first three just after they had been killed . They gave their names as Zaya George Elia and William Youhana Melham from the village ofTal Shamiran and Marden Tamraz Tamraz from the village of Tel Jazira. Pointing at the three dead men in front of him, one of them says in the video “Our fate is the same as these, if you do not take proper procedure for our release.”
ISIS abducted253 Assyrians from the 35 Assyrian villages on the Khabur river in the province of Hasaka. 48 of them were eventually released and, following the death of these three, 202 Khabur Assyrian hostages are still thought to be held. ISIS is demanding a ransom of over 10 million dollars, $50,000 per hostage, and in the video threatened to kill all the remaining hostages if the ransom was not paid.
From Left: Dr. Abdulmasih Enwiya, Basam Michael, Ashur Abraham, three Assyrians executed by ISIS on September 23.
