{"id":12728,"date":"2018-08-25T14:23:59","date_gmt":"2018-08-25T14:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12728"},"modified":"2018-08-25T14:23:59","modified_gmt":"2018-08-25T14:23:59","slug":"russia-accuses-syrian-rebels-of-preparing-idlib-chemical-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12728","title":{"rendered":"Russia accuses Syrian rebels of preparing Idlib chemical attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1361661\/middle-east\" readability=\"54\">\n<p>\nBEIRUT: At least 27 people are being held by Daesh in southern Syria, Human Rights Watch said Saturday as it deplored the hostage-taking as a \u201cwar crime.\u201d<br \/>The group of mostly women and children were abducted by Daesh during a massive July 25 assault on the Druze community in Sweida, in which the extremists killed more than 250 people.<br \/>They are being held by Daesh to use as leverage in negotiations with the Syrian government and its ally Russia, according to HRW.<br \/>\u201cHostage-taking is a war crime,\u201d the rights group said.<br \/>\u201cCivilian lives should not be used as bargaining chips,\u201d said its deputy Middle East director Lama Fakih.<br \/>Of more than 30 people taken hostage in the July offensive, at least two have since died.<br \/>A 19-year-old male student was beheaded and a video circulated of the killing, which was not released on the extremists\u2019 usual channels.<br \/>Later in August a 65-year-old woman died, with Daesh reporting she had been unwell.<br \/>Additionally, two women were able to escape after being abducted from their home, a family member told HRW.<br \/>Villagers provided the names of at least 27 people who remain in Daesh captivity, with children as young as seven among them, according to activists in Sweida province.<br \/>Daesh is seeking the release of extremists captured by the government in the neighboring province of Daraa, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said earlier this month.<br \/>The extemists currently hold less than three percent of Syria, after losing swathes of territory to government forces backed by Russian firepower.<br \/>But Daesh has proven it is still able to launch deadly attacks, with eight pro-government fighters killed and more than 60 wounded in an overnight raid in Sweida province.<br \/>The attack brought to 54 the number of pro-government fighters killed in the past month, while 147 extremists have been killed, the Observatory said.<br \/>Since the civil war erupted in Syria in 2011, more than 350,000 people have been killed and millions have fled their homes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BEIRUT: At least 27 people are being held by Daesh in southern Syria, Human Rights Watch said Saturday as it deplored the hostage-taking as a \u201cwar crime.\u201dThe group of mostly women and children were abducted by Daesh during a massive July 25 assault on the Druze community in Sweida, in which the extremists killed more&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":12729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}