ICC Note: ISIS militants in Syria have released a group of more than 37 Syrian Christians, including 27 women who were part of a group of more than 200 abducted in January from a cluster of Christian villages in NE Syria. Church leaders have been engaged in negotiations for months to secure their release. The situation was made more urgent following the release of a video in October showing the execution of three captives and threatening the deaths of the remaining.

11/07/2015 Syria (AP) – Islamic State militants on Saturday released 37 Syrian Christians, mostly women, who were among more than 200 people from the Assyrian minority group abducted in February, activists said.

Also Saturday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll from an airstrike on an IS-controlled eastern city near the border with Iraq rose to 71. The group initially reported that the Thursday attack killed 25 people.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground to monitor the war in Syria, said at least six children were among the dead. Other activist groups, as well as the Islamic State, said the attack was carried out by Russian jets, targeting a school and a popular market in Boukamal. In videos and pictures posted online purportedly showing the aftermath of the airstrike, people are seen digging for survivors in the rubble and holding children soaked in blood.

Russia began carrying out airstrikes in Syria on Sept.30, further complicating a civil war that is now in its fifth year. The conflict has killed 250,000 and displaced nearly half of Syria’s pre-war population.

Suspected Russian airstrikes on Saturday hit Douma, a rebel-held town in the suburbs of Damascus, the Observatory said. It reported that 23 people were killed, including seven women and six children. The Syrian Civil Defense team in the suburbs of Damascus, a volunteer group of rescue workers, said 24 people were killed.

…