Nearly 1,000 Assyrian Christian families have fled their homes in north-eastern Syria after jihadists kidnapped dozens of members of their community, an activist says.

Osama Edward, director of the Sweden-based Assyrian Human Rights Network, said the families fled in fear after jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group took the Assyrian Christians hostage early this week.

"Since Monday, 800 families have taken refuge in the city of Hasakeh and another 150 in Qamishli", a Kurdish town on the border with Turkey, he said.

Mr Edward said that, according to his sources in the community, IS militants kidnapped "between 70 and 100 people, mainly women, children and the elderly".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group earlier said that IS militants had taken 90 Assyrian Christians hostage in Hasakeh province since Monday.

Assyrian Christians, who are from one of the world's oldest Christian communities, have been under increasing threat since IS seized control of large parts of Syria.

The Islamic State group, which also holds swathes of Iraq, last year declared an Islamic "caliphate" in areas under its control and has committed widespread atrocities.

A native of part of the region where 35 Assyrian villages are located, Mr Edward said "the jihadists broke into houses at around 4:00am while everyone was asleep" on Monday.

IS has since captured at least a dozen villages in the area, Mr Edward said, including his wife's hometown of Tal Shamiram.

"When she tried to reach her uncle by telephone, a man replied and said: 'This is the house of the Islamic State'," Mr Edward said.

He said the hostages were taken to Shaddadi, an IS stronghold in Hasakeh province.

"People were expecting an attack, but they thought that either the Syrian army - which is just 30 kilometres from there - or the Kurds or the [US-led] coalition's strikes would protect them".

The coalition launched strikes against IS positions in Syria in September.

"IS has been losing territory because of the international coalition's strikes and they took the hostages to use them as human shields," Mr Edward said.

AFP