REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BEIRUT -- The UN children's agency and Human Rights Watch appealed Tuesday for the release of more than 100 Kurdish schoolboy and girls kidnapped by jihadists in Syria at the end of May.

The militants from the Islamic State (IS), formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), abducted some 153 schoolchildren on May 29.

The children, who included around 10 girls, were on their way back from taking year-end school exams in the northern city of Aleppo.

They were heading to the town of Ain al-Arab on buses when they were stopped in the IS-controlled town of Manbij.

Since their capture, IS has released around 15 children, including all the girls, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group. Another five boys escaped, according to both groups.

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