ISIS news: Terror group threatens to seize Syrian highway
A highway in Syria might be in danger as Islamic State forces threaten to capture the road, and if the ISIS successfully seizes the highway, it could displace refugees even farther from their government-held new homes.
According to The Independent, the Islamic State has moved forward within 22 miles of the M5 highway, the main route that connects government-held territories in Damascus to north and west parts of the country.
The crisis may have been fueled from the recent capture of the largely Christian town in northeastern part of Damascus, al-Qaryatain. Proving to be a huge dilemma for the administration of President Bashar al-Assad, the Islamic State forces advanced deeper into the west, taking hold of two villages that are a lot closer to the M5 route.
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Reports suggest that the Syrian army has not succeeded in all its attempts to reclaim the town that saw its St. Elian monastery demolished. The monastery is widely popular for its sites that have been around for about 1,500 years.
Four million Syrians have already fled their homes after the government fired bombs that resulted to uninhabitable areas for the crowd that mostly hails from the opposition.
While a huge number claim to be with the enemy, a larger 17 million who remain in the country are living in government-controlled areas, which are now being greatly threatened by the extremists.
Known for their practices, such as mass executions, ritual mutilation, and rape, the ISIS forces are feared by the people who live in areas under the government, as they have witnessed how the terrorists execute anyone who they think are violating their own definition of the Islam faith.
Although numerous reports indicate that almost half of the Syrian people have already been displaced both inside and outside of their country, the Alawites (2.6 million), Christians (2 million), Syrian Kurds (2.2 million), and Druze (650,000) are highly at risk of either losing more of their people or getting pushed to leave their homes.
