As of noon on Thursday (EST), ISIS was holding 262 Assyrians, but a report an hour later indicated another village was attacked and scores more Christians kidnapped, bringing the estimate to 350 and counting.
Todd Nettleton, spokesman for the Voice of the Martyrs USA,says the numbers won’t always agree from story to story because it’s fluid situation. “Some of that, I think, is just the chaos that [happens] after a village was ransacked: ‘Who’s missing? Who fled? Who’s hiding?'”
Numbers aside, the next question is, “What’s going to happen now? There’s been speculation that [ISIS] will look to trade them back for ISIS fighters who are being held prisoner, but I think after Libya [with] 21 Christians being beheaded, you’ve got to wonder if widespread killing is now going to be the thing that they’re shooting for...”