ISIS took several US & European citizens hostage: Putin

(rt.com), 18 October 2018 - The 700 hostages captured in Syria by Islamic State terrorists include US and European citizens and are being killed off 10 people a day, Russia’a President Putin said, criticizing American forces for “catastrophic” failure.  

Islamic State terrorists “have delivered ultimatums and made certain demands, threatening … to shoot ten people every day,” the Russian leader said, adding that the hostage-takers had already started carrying out their threats and executed ten hostages two days ago.  

“This is just horrible, it is a catastrophe,” Putin said, adding that the US forces that claim to control the area around the east bank of the Euphrates River, relying on the Kurdish armed forces on the ground, stay conspicuously silent on this crisis.  

They [the US] have clearly fallen short of their target,” Putin said, adding that Washington and its allies apparently failed to combat terrorists in the part of Syria they occupy.