Pick The Narrative
"The army continued its military operation against terrorist elements in Maaloula village and its vicinity, inflicting a heavy casualty in the ranks of the terrorists, including their leaders.""They shot and killed people. I heard gunshots and then I saw three bodies lying in the middle of a street in the old quarters of the village.
Syrian state news agency
In this Saturday, Sept. 7, 2013 photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a Syrian military solider fires a heavy machine gun during clashes with rebels in Maaloula village, northeast of the capital Damascus, Syria. Rebels including al-Qaida-linked fighters gained control of Maaloula, Syrian activists said Sunday. Government media provided a dramatically different account of the battle suggesting regime forces were winning. It was impossible to independently verify the reports from Maaloula, a scenic mountain community known for being one of the few places in the world where residents still speak the ancient Middle Eastern language of Aramaic. (AP Photo/SANA)
"Where is President Obama to see what has befallen on us?
Maaloula resident
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| This Saturday, Sept. 7, 2013 photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a church in Maaloula village, northeast of the capital Damascus, Syria. Rebels including al-Qaida-linked fighters gained control of Maaloula, Syrian activists said Sunday. Government media provided a dramatically different account of the battle suggesting regime forces were winning. It was impossible to independently verify the reports from Maaloula, a scenic mountain community known for being one of the few places in the world where residents still speak the ancient Middle Eastern language of Aramaic. (AP Photo/SANA) |
A slight difference of opinion there. Syria's state-run television reports all churches in Maaloula were safe, thanks to the army doing its job, pursuing gunmen in the western hills. The military, the media reports, itself proudly reports "progress" in its Maaloula offensive. An offensive against Syrian rebels who happen to be led by al-Qaeda-linked militias. Who seized the predominantly Christian village northeast of Damascus.
Heavy overnight fighting took place as the guerrillas, Syrian rebels and Islamist fighters together swept into the village nestling under its mountainside sanctuary. Hundreds of villagers were forced to flee. Home to two of the oldest surviving monasteries in Syria, what has occurred in Maaloula emphasizes the fears of Syria's religious minorities.
With the influx of Islamist extremists fighting alongside the rebels, albeit with an agenda of their own, Christians fear their days in their ancient homeland are numbered.
The very issue that troubles the Western powers, causing them to hesitate to empower the rebel side by intervening in the uneven civil war with the regime using all its technologically advanced weaponry on relatively ill-armed rebels, for fear of arming and benefiting terrorists, has become a life-and-death issue for Syrian civilians and most particularly Syrian Christians.
Clashing for days with the Syrian military the rebels managed to capture the village, despite the fierce fighting that should have advantaged the military but did not. The assault against the military for the possession of Maaloula was led by Jabhat al-Nustra affiliated with al-Qaeda and fighting alongside the Qalamon Liberation Front.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said some fifteen-hundred rebels were inside Maaloula. They have taken the interior and the army has stationed itself on the perimeter of the village, surrounding it, seemingly unable to rout the Islamists. Their inability to do just that appears to have escaped the notice of State TV, which parrots the line given them of army success.
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| This citizen journalism image provided by The Syrian Revolution against Bashar Assad which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, a Free Syrian army fighter stands on a damaged military tank in Zabadani, near Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2013. (AP Photo/The Syrian Revolution against Bashar Assad) |
Maaloula, according to villagers who have fled for haven elsewhere, "is a ghost town". Gunmen within the town refuse to permit anyone entry. The Demyanos church had been torched. Islamists stormed into two other churches in the old town and looted them. Yet another resident reported having seen Islamists forcing Christian residents remaining in the village to convert to Islam.
Labels: Christianity, Conflict, Islamists, Syria
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, September 10, 2013
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