The Islamic State group has released two women and four children among 27 surviving Druze hostages it seized during a deadly July attack on the minority community's heartland in southern Syria. State television broadcast footage of the six arriving in the city of Sweida on Saturday, joyful at being reunited with their families but haggard after their three-month ordeal.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said their release was the first part of a deal that would see at least 60 IS prisoners released in exchange and a $27 million ransom paid.
The jihadists abducted around 30 people - mostly women and children - from Sweida province in late July during the deadliest attack on Syria's Druze community of the seven-year civil war. As negotiations for their release dragged on, families led a series of protests outside government offices in Sweida to demand more be done.
"I cannot describe my joy," Rasmia Abu Amar told state television after being reunited with her husband. "But it is incomplete - my son has not yet been released," she said, her hair covered by a white headscarf. A second woman appeared with her four children, their clothes still dirty from their long captivity and her sons with their heads shaved.
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