Putin says ISIS took 700 people hostage in Syria, including Americans and Europeans.

ISIS fighters in Syria. DW. 

Vladimir Putin claims that ISIS has taken 700 people hostage, including Americans and Europeans in Syria. DW. Putin said that ISIS had made demands and would execute 10 people a day if they were not met and that 10 people had already been executed. Putin also said that ISIS was expanding in US controlled areas and a Russian news outlet said that ISIS had taken the hostages from a refugee camp in Dier Ez Zor province. 

RT.com has a Russian perspective on this story.

My Comment:

Fox News had a story up about this saying the US government had said this story is fake news but it came up as 404 not found and now I can't even find the link. I assume it was legitimate but I haven't been able to find another source that dismissed these charges. 

What do I think? I think Putin is probably making stuff up. If this had happened it would have been major international news. Sure, the United States government has reasons to cover it up since it would damage their credibility but there is nothing in the world that the US media wouldn't want more than to destroy the credibility of Donald Trump. 

Putin also has a major reason to lie. Making ISIS into a bigger boogyman that it really is helps his ambitions in the region and justifies keeping troops in Syria. He wants to make it look like our Syria policy is so bad that hundreds of people could be kidnapped from right underneath our noses. 

Of course, with only Putin's word to go on, it's very hard to tell what the truth is. ISIS certainly would kidnap people and execute them if their ransom demands aren't met. They have been doing so for years now and they are capable of anything. It's not like this would be out of character for them. 

But I don't think this happened. Why? For one thing ISIS has been greatly diminished. There are rumors that they are making a bit of comeback, but I don't think they have the troops to pull off such a major operation, especially on the side of the Euphrates where they have little presence. 

Secondly, ISIS tends to make a big deal out of hostage taking. Though their media empire has been demolished it doesn't take much to buy a Go-Pro, execute some people and then post it on the internet. As far as I am aware this hasn't happened. 

Finally, I struggle to think who the captured Americans and Europeans could be. Though there have been some foreign fighters working with the Kurds and rebels, many of them have gone home and the ones that haven't wouldn't be hanging out in a refugee camps. Aid workers are a possibility but that would leave a paper trail and the organizations they were working with would say something. And any CIA or other foreign intelligence agents captured would be a propaganda coup for ISIS and they would not remain silent. 

Time will tell if this story is real or not. My gut says it isn't but I have been wrong before. Either way, I'm not going to take Vladimir Putin's word on it. He's got a bunch of reasons to lie about it and without outside confirmation I will remain skeptical.