Islamic State (ISIS) militants on Saturday freed most of the cement factory workers they had kidnapped near Damascus this week after checking their religious status. Four workers, who belongs to the minority Druze community, a Syrian opposition, were killed by the millitant group, according to a news agency linked to this group.

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The report of the release of the cement factory workers surfaced two days after they were kidnapped from their work place in Dumeir on Thursday, April 7, after an attack on government forces.

The Druze, an Shiite Islam sect, made up 5 percent of Syria's pre-war population of 23 million. ISIS, a Sunni Muslim extremist group, regards the Shiites as heretics.

Reports surfaced on last Friday that a large percentage of the cement factory workers kidnapped were migrantss; most of them allegedly hail from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Yemen, Afghanistan and Oman.

ISIS frequently kidnaps people and asks for ransoms to return them back to their respective families or employers. Security experts say the group uses these earnings to purchase arms and ammunnations. The jihadist group is allegedly struggling to maintain its troops in the wake of US-led and Russian airstrikes on their oil infrastructure and other resources.

ISIS is also losing the plot to the US-led Kurdish alliance in northern Syria. Many experts believe that ISIS is fast losing its base, resources and will be forced to surrender if the airstrikes continue for a long time.

The Syrian army in a combined attack with the alliance of United States and others launched twenty seven strikes in both Iraq and Syria this week.

TagsISIS, Syria, Druze