Syria: IS attacks Christian villages, kidnaps 'dozens' of people

Archbishop Hindo

In the early hours of yesterday morning, Monday 23 February, more than 40 pick-up vehicles carrying jihadist militia of the so-called Islamic State attacked several Christian villages along the river Khabur, in the north eastern Syrian province of Jiazira. Dozens of Syrian Christians were taken hostage by the jihadists, while churches in some villages were torched or damaged.

The Syrian-Catholic Archbishop of Hassaké-Nisibi, Jacques Behnan Hindo said: “The terrorists first attacked the village of Tel Tamar, then they took Tel Shamiran and all the many smaller villages as far as Tel Hermuz, where they set fire to everything. In Tel Hormuz and at Tel Shamiran they took dozens of hostages, with the intention perhaps of using them for obtaining a ransom or for an exchange of prisoners. Yesterday evening, at 9.30pm Kurd fighters told us they had managed to take control of Tel Hormuz, with the help of Syrian Christian battalions. However as yet we have no confirmation of this news”.

Archbishop Hindo said: “I wish to say quite clearly that we have the feeling of being abandoned into the hands of those Daesh. Yesterday American bombers flew over the area several times, but without taking action. We have a hundred Assyrian families who have taken refuge in Hassakè, but they have received no assistance either from the Red Crescent or from Syrian government aid workers, perhaps because they are Christians. The UN high commission for Refugees is nowhere to be seen”.

Along the banks of the River Khabur, a tributary of the Euphrates, there more than 30 Christian villages which were established in the 1930s to provide a safe haven for Assyrian and Chaldean Christians fleeing Iraq and the massacres perpetrated by the Iraqi army at that time. These villages were flourishing, each with a population of thousands, with churches and active communities running schools and social initiatives. But with the onset of war most had become empty and some were more like ghost towns. Tel Hormuz, which before the war counted some 4,000 inhabitants, had dwindled in recent months to less than three hundred.

While there are currently no details on those who have been kidnapped, Christians living in these areas had previously received an ultimatum to convert, pay a religious levy (Jizya) or face death, causing many to flee their ancestral lands.

Last week, Daesh fighters released a video reportedly showing the mass beheadings of 21 mostly Egyptian Christians on a beach outside the Libyan capital, Tripoli, which sparked an international outcry and led to airstrikes by Egyptian forces on weapons caches and training camps in the coastal cities of Derna and Sirte.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said: “This kidnapping is the latest appalling assault on these ancient Assyrian villages. Daesh was already inflicting terror and suffering in the region through systematic use of religious taxation, destroying Churches and capturing and killing anyone who does not share their beliefs. Syria is the cradle of world Christianity, which far from being a Western or alien religion, was birthed and is rooted in the Middle East. It is both tragic and an irony that members of this ancient, indigenous community continue to suffer at the hands of a mercenary army. Our prayers are with the family and friends of those who have been abducted and we would point the international community to this latest act of aggression as evidence of the need to provide protection for Syria’s Christians against an onslaught that seeks to erase the country’s diverse heritage.”

Source: Fides/CSW