As alarming sectarian violence swept through Syria in the third week of July, Christian communities in the region experienced a new wave of persecution. Source: OSV News.
Attacks on the country’s Christian, Druze and Alawite communities were perpetrated mainly by Islamist jihadists.
The southern district of Sweida, a predominantly Druze region with a substantial Christian population, witnessed horrific attacks causing deaths and injuries to civilians, religious officials, and on churches and other buildings last week.
These minorities are experiencing a growing deep distrust towards the Islamist-led government now in power in Damascus.
The Greek Melkite Church of St Michael in the Sweida village of Al-Sura was attacked and set ablaze by unknown assailants, according to witness accounts made to the pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need on July 15.
Photos on social media confirm the attack, but access to the area has not been possible due to ongoing violence taking place.
Much of the recent atrocities have been levelled against the Druze community, where the death toll has exceeded 600 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The escalating violence prompted neighbouring Israel to intervene in response to calls made by its own Druze community to help.
Islamist militants view the Druze – whose religion contains elements of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism – as heretics.
In another recorded incident, 38 homes belonging to Christian families were destroyed by fire, leaving numerous families homeless, according to ACN. As a result, some 70 people were forced to take refuge in a church hall in Shahba, where they are fearful, living in precarious circumstances.
Elsewhere in western Syria, Syrian security forces in cooperation with residents of the village of Al-Kharibat, near Tartus, thwarted an attempted bombing of the Maronite church of Mar Elias on July 13 and arrested three terrorists.
The United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria told Reuters news agency that it is investigating the spike in violence.
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Houses destroyed, church burnt: new wave of violence against Syrian Christians (By Dale Gavlak, OSV News)
