More than 200 "young and healthy boys and girls" were abducted by ISIS militants in the Aleppo region of northern Syria, on Tuesday, according to eyewitnesses.
ARA News was told that jihadists raided six villages near the city of al-Bab in Aleppo, and purposefully targeted Kurdish homes.
"They drove young people out of their homes, including men and women, and they moved them away by large trucks. We don't know where they've been taken," an eyewitness in Tel Jarja village told ARA News.
"ISIS fighters left behind the elderly and children, they only took the young and healthy boys and girls."
A Kurdish lawyer in Aleppo, Omran Mansour, said activists were concerned that the hostages, who number more than 210, would be used as "human shields" by Islamic State, whichis engaged in an ongoing battle with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
"ISIS extremists are now carrying out a revenge campaign against Kurds and other communities in northern Aleppo, accusing them of supporting the SDF," he added.
He also said that the kidnapped women may be used as sex slaves, and the men forced to fight for Islamic State. "We have seen this scenario before, especially with the Yezidi community at the hands of ISIS jihadis, and we would apparently see this over and over again as long as those terrorists exist in this region."
