The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the air strikes targeted Islamic State fighters near the town of Tel Tamr, where the militants, also known as ISIS, had captured 10 Assyrian villages. Its fighters were shown beheading 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya last week. Our correspondent says it may be that the captives are to be used as part of a swap with the Kurdish forces. Hundreds of Assyrians who were living in villages on the north bank of the Khabur river and elsewhere are reported to have fled following the attack to the largely Kurdish-controlled provincial capital of Hassakeh, to the south-east, and Qamishli, another city to the north-east. Washington on Wednesday condemned the attacks against Christians, which it said included the burning of homes and churches and abduction of women, children and the elderly. ISLAMIC STATE "NEEDS MONEY" 
 
 The attack on the Assyrians coincided with a big offensive by Kurdish YPG fighters against Islamic State in northeast Syria, a strategically vital region because it borders territory the militants control in Iraq. Image copyright AP Image caption It is not clear where the IS militants have taken the abducted Assyrians 
 
 There are fears that more members of an Assyrian Christian community in north-eastern Syria were abducted by Islamic State militants than at first thought.
– ISIS militants have rounded up hundreds of Christian hostages after storming through a chain of villages along a strategic river in northeastern Syria over the past three days, activists said today. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights puts the number of abducted Christian Assyrians at 220, many taken from more than 11 communities in Hassakeh province. The province, which borders Turkey and Iraq, has become the latest battleground in the fight against ISIS in Syria. It is predominantly Kurdish but also has populations of Arabs and predominantly Christian Assyrians and Armenians. ISIS hasn't yet owned the abductions, and the motive isn't clear; Reuters and the BBC both speculate that the militants might be looking for a prisoner swap with Kurdish forces. "These were peaceful villages that had nothing to do with the battles," says a Kurdish official in the area. ISIS began abducting the Assyrians on Monday, when militants attacked a cluster of villages along the Khabur River, sending thousands of people fleeing to safer areas. Younan Talia, a senior official with the Assyrian Democratic Organization, says ISIS had raided 33 Assyrian villages, picking up as many as 300 people along the way. It was not possible to reconcile the numbers, and the fate of the hostages remains unclear. State-run news agency SANA and an Assyrian activist group, the Assyrian Network for Human Rights in Syria, say the group has been moved to the ISIS-controlled city of Shaddadeh, a predominantly Arab town south of the city of Hassakeh. The Observatory, however, says they're still being held in nearby Mount Abdulaziz.