Daesh kills Druze woman captured in Syria attack

BEIRUT — The Daesh group has killed a woman from a group of Druze hostages it seized during a deadly attack in Syria's Sweida province, a source and a monitor said Tuesday.

The 25-year-old was among more than 30 people Daesh extremists abducted as they launched the deadliest attack to hit Sweida's Druze minority since the start of Syria's seven-year civil war.

In the attack on July 25, Daesh waged a series of suicide bombings, shootings and stabbings that left more than 250 people dead.

It later emerged the extremists had also kidnapped the group, mostly Druze women and their children, during the attack.

A source familiar with negotiations with the group told AFP that "relatives of Tharwat Abu Ammar were told Tuesday that she had been executed" by Daesh.

The extremists also sent a picture of her, covered in blood, to a negotiator, the source said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said she had been shot in the head.

The agency's head Nour Radwan told AFP that Daesh had killed her parents during the attack on the village.

Daesh claimed the Sweida attack via the Telegram messaging app, but it has not mentioned the captives or published pictures or videos of them on its social media channels.

In August, the group executed a 19-year-old male student among the captives, Radwan told AFP.

The following week, a 65-year-old Syrian woman among the captives died, with Daesh telling negotiators an illness caused her death.

    There is little information on what conditions the hostages are being kept in, including whether they are subject to torture or other abuses.

Sweida province is the heartland of the country's Druze minority, which made up around three percent of Syria's pre-war population — or around 700,000 people.