Islamic State group fighters have kidnapped 300 cement workers in an area northeast of Damascus where the militants launched an assault against government forces this week, Syrian state television said Thursday.
The workers and contractors of the Al Badia Cement company were taken from near the town of Dumeir and their employer has lost all contact with them, state TV quoted the industry ministry as saying.
The cement factory outside Dumeir has been a hot spot for clashes in recent days.
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Earlier Thursday locals said they were not able to contact many of those kidnapped.
“We haven’t been able to reach our family members since noon Monday after an attack by Daesh on the factory,” a resident of Dumeir, a town 30 miles east of Damascus, told the French news agency AFP.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitoring group, said dozens of workers were believed to have been taken to an unknown location.