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Pope Francis is closely monitoring the situation in Syria and praying for the Christian minority. For Mgr Georges Abou Khazen, the pope’s closeness is a source “of great consolation and help.” The road to peace “is long, but the only one possible.” At least 5,000 Christians fled from the Islamists. The UN Security Council condemns…
Read moreby Dale Gavlak A sniper surveys the rubble in Kobani. ‘There is a need for immediate action similar to what took place in Kobani’ (Photo: PA) A prominent Syrian Christian political leader has called for US-led coalition forces to use air strikes to aid fellow Christian and Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State militants…
Read moreISIS soldiers in convoy in confiscated trucks in Iraq The Vice President of the Assyrian Church in Lebanon, Father Yatroun Colliana, lamented the plight of his coreligionists in neighboring Syria following Monday’s Islamic State (ISIS) onslaught against Assyrian Christian villages in the country. His comments were made in an exclusive interview with Lebanese Daily An-Nahar.…
Read moreABy Therese Apelmerican Matthew VanDyke, right, founded a nonprofit group that is supplying freedom fighters to help Assyrian Christians fight the advance of Islamic terrorists in Iraq. Assyrian Christians in the Nineveh Plain in Iraq, with the help of a group of Americans, are building a fighting machine to stand toe-to-toe with the Islamic State…
Read moreAbductions and killings by ISIL fighters in Syria and Iraq threaten ancient minorities. Last July, ISIL issued a decree to the dwindling population of Christians in eastern Syria and northern Iraq, ordering them to convert to Islam or pay a special religious levy. And if they did not, “there is nothing to give them but…
Read moreBy John Newton TERRORIST group Islamic State has started killing hostages seized after it took Assyrian Christian villages in Syria’s Hassake governorate – with reports that around 15 are dead. In a message sent to Catholic agencies working in the region, including Aid to the…
Read moreby Katie Gorka Today marks the third day in ISIS’ latest offensive against a string of Christian towns and villages in northeast Syria. According to Aziz Mirza, with the Syriac Cultural Association, speaking from Qamishli by phone today, ISIS is continuing to push forward in trying to take control of this predominantly Assyrian Christian region.…
Read moreAlmost 1,000 local Assyrian families are believed to have fled their homes in the wake of the abductions Displaced Syrian Christians attend a Christmas mass service in the Lebanese capital Beirut (AFP) As many as 200 people may have been seized on Monday in raids on a string of villages near Tal Tamr, in Hasakeh…
Read moreBy Laura Smith-Spark and John Vause, CNN (CNN)ISIS is holding many more Assyrian Christians hostage than previously thought — and it is reportedly planning to release a message Wednesday threatening to kill them. Osama Edward, founder of the Assyrian Human Rights Network, told CNN that the extremist group is now believed to have 150 hostages,…
Read moreAgence France Presse VATICAN CITY: A prominent bishop on Wednesday accused Turkey of preventing Christians from fleeing Syria while allowing jihadis responsible for their persecution to cross its border unchecked. Jacques Behnan Hindo, the Syrian Catholic Archbishop of Hasakeh-Nisibi, made the…
Read moreAn unverified photo posted online by ISIS purportedly shows one of the group’s militants manning a position during clashes near the village of Tel Tamr, in Syria’s northeast Hassakeh province. BEIRUT — Fierce fighting between Kurdish and Christian militiamen and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants is continuing in northeastern Syria where the…
Read moreBy Nina Shea Still reeling from last week’s news of the Islamist beheading of 21 Coptic Christian migrant workers in Libya, Middle Eastern Christians were again targeted by a large scale Islamist terror attack with thousands of victims Monday, in Syria. Islamic State jihadists laid siege to a string of Christian Assyrian villages, along the…
Read moreBY TOM PERRY AND SULEIMAN AL-KHALIDI BEIRUT/AMMAN A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter takes up position with weapon at the frontline against the Islamic State, on the outskirts of Mosul January 26, 2015. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari (Reuters) – Kurdish militia pressed a big offensive against Islamic State in northeast…
Read morePhoto posted by al-Baraka division of Islamic State purportedly showing militants battling Kurdish and Christian militia near Tal Hamr, Hassakeh province, Syria (25 February 2015) It is not clear where the IS militants have taken the abducted Assyrians There are fears that more members of an Assyrian Christian community in north-…
Read moreby Michael Pizzi @michaelwpizzi ISIL staged a dawn raid on 10 Syrian villages, taking 150 Assyrian Christians hostage as thousands fled The kidnapping of up to 150 Assyrian Christian men, women and children by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) marked the latest tragedy to strike the region’s long-…
Read moreBy Johnlee Varghese Christians from Iraq carry out a protest in United State calling for urgent help for Iraqi Christians.Facebook/Ashoor Baba Reports have emerged that the Islamic State (Isis) militants have taken at least 150 Assyrian Christians captive, and that as many as eight of the captured men have been…
Read moreRodi Said/Reuters A refugee from the minority Yazidi sect carries a sign referring to the Kurdish People’s Defence Units in Qamishli, northeastern Syria on August 17, 2014. Yazidis and Assyrians are two of the minority sects under assault from ISIS. Minority Christians who live in northeastern Syria are once again at the center of the…
Read more(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 burst past a few men guarding the village of Tal Shamiram at about 4…
Read moreBy John Newton FEARS are growing for the safety of more than 100 people taken captive yesterday (Tuesday 24th February) as the extremist group Islamic State seized Christian villages in Hassake governorate, north-east Syria. Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana, who works in support of persecuted Christians in the…
Read moreARA News Hasakah, Syria – Dozens of Assyrian Christian families were displaced from the town of Tel Temir in northeastern Syria following attacks by extremists of the Islamic State (IS/ISIS). Most of the displaced Assyrian families headed to the city of Hasakah, eyewitnesses…
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