IS destroys Christian monastery in central Syria

The Islamic State (IS) destroyed a Christian monastery in the central Syrian town of Qaryateyn, a monitor group reported on Thursday.

The IS destroyed the Mar Elian Monastery in Qaryateyn, which was overran by the terror-labeled group earlier this month, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The IS militants destroyed the monastery by bulldozers amid over 20 Syrian airstrikes against the IS positions in the town, the UK-based watchdog group added.

It said over 110 people, including Christians, from Qaryateyn were moved to the group's de-facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria.

After overrunning the town, the IS militants kidnapped over 230 people, including 60 Christians. IS was later said to have released 48 of those kidnapped.

The town has a strategic importance for IS due to its location on the road connecting the IS-held ancient city of Palmyra with the eastern part of the mountainous region of Qalamoun, where the IS has positions.

Syria's Christians, who take up about ten 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.

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

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