Story highlights
A U.N. envoy says Syria peace talks will resume next week in Geneva, Switzerland
Syrian state news: Militants captured more than 300 cement factory workers, contractors
Official, citing witnesses, says about 125 seen boarding buses headed to ISIS-held areas
(CNN) —
ISIS-affiliated militants captured more than 300 workers and contractors at a cement factory in Syria, state news reported Thursday.
Al-Badiyeh Cement Co. said the militants were holding the workers and contractors from the plant near Damascus, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, citing a source in Syria’s Ministry of Industry.
The company had not been in contact with staff as of late Thursday afternoon.
Local official Nadim Kreizan told SANA that witnesses saw about 125 “abducted workers” being put on buses headed toward areas more firmly under ISIS control.
Ramdi Abdulrahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told CNN he believes 150 to 250 factory employees were missing. The observatory later said that at least 140 employees of the factory were able to escape during the attack, while no less than 170 were captured.
The factory is in Al-Dhmeir, a town 48 kilometers (about 30 miles) northeast of Damascus, the Syrian capital and the base of President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
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Wounded passengers are treated following a suicide bombing at the Brussels Airport on March 22, 2016. The attacks on the airport and a subway killed 32 people and wounded more than 300. ISIS claims its "fighters" launched the attacks in the Belgian capital.
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STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images
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Wael Qubady/AP
Yemenis check the scene of a car bomb attack Sunday, December 6, in Aden, Yemen. Aden Gov. Jaafar Saad and six bodyguards died in the attack, for which the terror group ISIS claimed responsibility.
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AP
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YOAN VALAT/EPA/LANDOV
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Bilal Hussein/AP
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Bram Janssen/AP
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SANA/AP
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Maxim Grigoriev/Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations/AP
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Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images
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AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images
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AP
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AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
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From ISIS
In this image taken from social media, an ISIS fighter holds the group's flag after the militant group overran the Syrian town of al-Qaryatayn on Thursday, August 6, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. ISIS uses modern tools such as social media to promote reactionary politics and religious fundamentalism. Fighters are destroying holy sites and valuable antiquities even as their leaders propagate a return to the early days of Islam.
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From ISIS
An ISIS fighter poses with spoils purportedly taken after capturing the Syrian town of al-Qaryatayn.
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AP
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AP
Buildings reduced to piles of debris can be seen in the eastern suburbs of Ramadi on August 6.
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Saudi Press Agency/AP
The governor of the Asir region in Saudi Arabia, Prince Faisal bin Khaled bin Abdulaziz, left, visits a man who was wounded in a suicide bombing attack on a mosque in Abha, Saudi Arabia, on August 6. ISIS claimed responsibility for the explosion, which killed at least 13 people and injured nine others.
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Saudi officials and investigators check the inside of the mosque on August 6.