ISIS abducts scores of Christians in northeastern Syria, groups say

(CNN)Assyrians in northeastern Syria villages awoke Tuesday to ISIS militants at their doors, with the Islamist extremists abducting scores from the Christian group and forcing hundreds more to run for their lives, an advocate said.

The ISIS fighters bust past a few men guarding the village of Tal Shamiram around 4 a.m. (9 p.m. ET Monday) and abducted children, women and the elderly, said Usama Edward, the founder of the Assyrian Human Rights Network.

Talking to CNN from Stockholm, Sweden, Edward said that between 70 and 100 people total were kidnapped in that village and others in the same cluster near Tal Tamer in Al Hasakah province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that ISIS had abducted 90 Assyrians. "Reliable sources" told this London-based monitoring organization that they'd overheard ISIS militants talking on wireless devices about having detained "56 crusaders" in Tal Shamiram alone.

Not far away in the village of Ghibsh, ISIS executed two citizens for "dealing with the Kurds," the Syrian Observatory reported. Syrian Kurdish fighters -- who are part of the People's Protection Units, or YPG, and affiliated with Kurdish fighters out of Iraq -- are among those battling the Islamist extremist group.

About 700 Assyrian families have managed to escape the onslaught, with 600 of them taking up refuge in St. Mary's Cathedral in al-Hasakah, Syria, Edward said. There and elsewhere, Assyrians lack food, water, blankets and other necessities, not to mention security from being in the middle of a years-long civil war.

"They are facing a possible massacre by the (Syrian) regime and by ISIS," Edward said. "Everyone is fighting everyone else. They are surrounded."

Advocate: 'A miracle' Assyrians have survived

Also known as the Islamic State, ISIS has attacked numerous minority groups like the Assyrians during its bloody campaign to create a vast caliphate across Syria and Iraq under its extreme version of Sharia law.

The Assyrians have a history dating back some 4,000 years, in the time of Mesopotamia, which is considered one of the cradles of civilization and the birthplace of writing and literature. While its first religion was Ashurism, Assyrians have been predominantly Christian since the third century A.D.

This summer, ISIS overran the city of Qaraqosh, a historic Assyrian town of 50,000 people in northern Iraq about 20 miles southeast of Mosul.

Many Mosul residents had fled to Qaraqosh after the Islamist extremists took over that city, Iraq's second-largest. At the time, ISIS issued an ultimatum to Christians living there: Convert to Islam, pay a fine or face "death by sword."

The latest reported abduction occurred about 160 miles (255 kilometers) east of Qaraqosh, which shows the wide reach of Assyrians as well as ISIS.

Edward, from the Assyrian Human Rights Network, said members of his group and other Syrian Christians have been "left all alone" by Syria's government and the world. Kurdish fighters may launch an operation to rescue those abducted, "but it very dangerous (and) everyone could get killed."

"This is like a miracle that they have survived this long," he said of his fellow Assyrians. "How can these people stay alive? They are trying to defend their homes."