ISIS Kidnaps Over 150 Schoolchildren in Syria; Episode Lacks Coverage Due to Syrian Civil War

More than 150 children have been kidnapped by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) -- now called Islamic State -- inside Syria's town of Manbij. The children have been missing for more than a month, yet their kidnapping has gone largely unnoticed, the IBT (International Business Times) website reports today (July 4, 2014).

According to a Human Rights watch report, ISIS abducted 153 children between the ages of 13 and 14 from the mostly Kurdish town of Ain al-Arab on May 29. The children were returning home from taking their year-end exams in the city of Aleppo when they were abducted.

The kidnapping in Syria did not receive anywhere near the news media coverage that the recent kidnapping of more than 200 girls in Nigeria received. Max Abrahms -- a terrorist expert from Northeastern University in Boston -- said the Syrian kidnapping case wasn't reported because Syria's civil war, now in its fourth year, has exhausted readers and international leaders.

"There is so much violence there in Syria, even big attacks go unseen," Abrahms said.