Daesh agrees to free 300 Syrian workers: Monitor

Beirut - The statement said four of the cement workers were executed.

Syrian mediators reached an agreement Friday for the release of some 300 cement workers kidnapped by the Daesh group, a monitor said, but it was unclear exactly how many were freed.
Daesh abducted the employees on Monday from Al Badia cement factory outside the town of Dmeir, around 50 kilometres east of Damascus.
Local figures from Dmeir mediated a deal with Daesh on Friday to let the workers go free, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Britain-based monitor said that in effect, some 170 workers would be freed as others had already managed to escape.
The Observatory could not specify how many had been released on Friday.
But a military source told AFP that he saw dozens of cement workers arrive on Friday evening at a nearby military airport.
Daesh reportedly abducted the employees during a major offensive on Monday around the town of Dmeir.
The Daesh-affiliated Amaq news agency said in an online statement that it released about 300 of the workers, but that it would not free 20 men accused of belonging to a pro-government militia.
The statement said four of the cement workers were executed for being Druze, a group considered heretical by Daesh.

• MENA