BEIRUT -- Islamic State militants seized more Christians from their homes in northeastern Syria in the past three days, raising the total number abducted by the extremist group to more than 220, activists said Thursday.
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At the same time, the extremists also released a video showing the continued destruction of the heritage of the lands under their control. It depicted men using sledgehammers to smash ancient Mesopotamian statues and other artifacts in Iraq's northern city of Mosul.
The video, coinciding with mounting fears over the fate of the captive Christian Assyrians in Syria, sent a fresh wave of dread across the region, particularly among minority groups who feel targeted by the extremists.
"Daesh is wiping Assyrian heritage in Mosul, and at the same time wiping them geographically from the face of the earth," said Osama Edward, director of the Assyrian Network for Human Rights in Syria. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.
About 200 Assyrians and other Christians gathered in a church east of Beirut in solidarity with the victims in Syria and Iraq. Some cried openly.
One man held a banner that read: "We will not surrender, we will not be broken." A few young men said they were preparing to go to Syria to fight and help their brethren defend their homes against the Islamic State.
The destruction of artifacts in the Mosul museum is part of a campaign by the extremists, who have destroyed a number of shrines -- including Muslim holy sites -- to eliminate what they view as heresy. They also are believed to have sold ancient artifacts on the black market to finance their bloody campaign in the region.
In the video released Thursday, militants used sledgehammers and drills to smash and destroy several large statues, which are then shown chipped and in pieces. The five-minute video also shows a black-clad man at an archaeological site in Mosul drilling through and destroying a winged bull -- an Assyrian protective deity -- that dates to the 7th century B.C.
The video was posted on social media accounts affiliated with the Islamic State. It could not be independently verified, but a professor at the Archaeology College in Mosul said the two sites depicted in the video are the city museum and a location known as Nirgal Gate, one of several gates to the capital of the Assyrian Empire, Ninevah.
"I'm totally shocked," Amir al-Jumaili said by phone from outside Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city. "It's a catastrophe. With the destruction of these artifacts, we can no longer be proud of Mosul's civilization."
Irina Bokova, director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said in a statement that she asked that an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council be convened "on the protection of Iraq's cultural heritage as an integral element for the country's security."
"I condemn this as a deliberate attack against Iraq's millennial history and culture, and as an inflammatory incitement to violence and hatred," Bokova said.
Mosul and the surrounding Nineveh province fell to the Islamic State militants in June, as the extremists captured large portions of Iraq and neighboring Syria.
They have since declared a self-styled caliphate, or state ruled by their harsh interpretation of Islamic law, in territories that are under their control. They have killed members of religious minority groups, sent others fleeing from their homes, enslaved women and destroyed houses of worship.
The Iraqi region under the control of the extremists has nearly 1,800 of the country's 12,000 registered archaeological sites. Experts said those also are at risk of destruction by the militants, who aim to cleanse the area of ideas they consider un-Islamic, including library books, relics and even Islamic sites considered idolatrous.
"The Prophet Muhammad took down idols with his bare hands when he went into Mecca," a militant says in the video. "We were ordered by our prophet to take down idols and destroy them."
Islamic State militants ransacked the Central Library of Mosul in January, smashing the locks and taking about 2,000 books while leaving only Islamic texts. Days later, militants broke into the University of Mosul's library and built a bonfire out of hundreds of books on science and culture, destroying them in front of students.
Among the most important sites under the militants' control are four ancient cities: Ninevah, Kalhu, Dur Sharrukin and Ashur, which at different times were capitals of the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians first arose around 2,500 B.C. and once ruled from the Mediterranean coast to what is now Iran.
In Syria, fears mounted Thursday over the fate of the abducted Christians, with at least 220 now being held captive, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-government monitoring group with a network of contacts in Syria.
An Assyrian in Beirut whose parents and sister were among a dozen relatives abducted said he called his father's mobile phone Monday and got a man who said: "This is the Islamic State." The man then briefly put the father on the line, who said in a terrified voice not to worry, that they were being treated well.
Relatives' mobile phones have since been shut off, the Beirut resident said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for his family members' lives.
The abductions began Monday, when militants attacked a cluster of villages along the Khabur River, sending thousands of people fleeing to safer areas. The Assyrian human-rights group said the militants picked up dozens more Assyrians from 11 communities near the town of Tal Tamr over the next few days.
The town's province, which borders Turkey and Iraq, has become the latest battleground in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria. It is predominantly Kurdish but also has populations of Arabs and predominantly Christian Assyrians and Armenians.
Younan Talia, a senior official with the Assyrian Democratic Organization, said the Islamic State had raided 33 Assyrian villages, seizing as many as 300 people. Edward said his group had documented the names of 255 missing people.
The Syriac Military Council, a militia formed in recent years to protect Assyrian villages in northeastern Syria, said in a statement that more than 350 civilians from 12 villages had been abducted.
It was not possible to reconcile the difference in the reported numbers of missing.
Assyrian organizations and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that negotiations were taking place for the release of the prisoners in exchange for Islamic State fighters held by Christian and Kurdish militias, with local Arab tribal leaders acting as mediators.
The Assyrian news agency said tribal leaders were pushing the Islamic State to release civilian Assyrians, and that the group had agreed in principle "to release those Assyrians who offered no resistance, but flatly rejected releasing those who fought back."
Meanwhile, family members could only wait for official word on the hostages.
"We are praying for them and we are fasting," said the Assyrian in Beirut. "I don't care if they burn the villages down, but please let them return safe."
Information for this article was contributed by Zeina Karam, Sinan Salaheddin and Cara Anna of The Associated Press; by Anne Barnard and Hwaida Saad of The New York Times; and by Zaid Sabah and Kambiz Foroohar of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 02/27/2015