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1st LD Writethru: IS militants abduct dozens of Christians in central Syria

Xinhua, August 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Islamic State (IS) militants have snatched dozens of Syrian Christians, including women and children, in the town of Qaryateyn in central Syria, a monitor group reported Friday.

Dozens of Christians were among 230 civilians the IS captured in Qaryateyn in the southeastern countryside of the central province of Homs, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The number includes 19 children, whose destiny is still unknown, according to the UK-based watchdog group.

It said the kidnapping of the Christians were according to a list of names the IS militants had. A copy of the list were posted online with the names of the snatched Christians handwritten in red.

Other activists placed the number of the abducted Christians at 60, who are part of 100 families from the Syriac Christians in the town.

The IS militants stormed the town last Wednesday after carrying out several suicide car bombings at the outskirts of the town.

After storming the town, intense battles raged between the IS and the Syrian army, which was backed by the air force.

Reports said the army withdrew and repositioned to avoid losses while the air force and artillery were still shelling the town.

Syria's Christians, who take up about 10 percent in the country's Sunni-majority population, have suffered from the expansion of the ultra-radical groups in different part of the Syria.

The Christians showed support to the embattled President Bashar al-Assad whose administration has boasted itself as a defender of the minority groups in Syria, which consists of a remarkable melange of sects and beliefs.

Christians in Syria were quite well off and some even hold senior positions in the government. This might be one of the causes that have raised their concern over a possible government change.

It's common in Syria to see a mosque adjacent to a church not only in Christian neighborhoods but in every part of the country.

Damascus still contains a considerable proportion of Christians, with churches all over the city but particularly in the district of Bab Touma.

Masses are held every Sunday and civil servants are given Sunday mornings off to allow them to attend churches, even though Sunday is a working day in Syria.

In late 2013, Gregory III Laham, Patriarch of the Church of Antioch and all East, told Xinhua that Syria's long-term crisis displaced more than 450,000 Christian Syrians and killed more than 1,000 of them. Endit