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Anti-Assad rebels have been forced out of many parts of Syria’s
ancient Christian village of Maaloula, but the fighting there remains
heavy, RT correspondent Maria Finoshina reports from the scene.After arriving in the center of the village Wednesday, Maria Finoshina and the RT camera crew saw signs of a recent battle and heard shelling, but received a warm welcome from smiling and relieved Syrian Army soldiers, who said the village was freed from jihadists. The claim would later in the day turn out to be premature.
Al-Nusra Front fighters first attacked the village last Wednesday. The following seven days saw Maaloula torn between the rebels and government forces, with both occasionally gaining control over the village.
Some residents, who claim rebels have resorted to looting, executions and forcing residents to convert to Islam, chose to join the Army to defend their village. Among them, Saba Ubeid, a store owner, said when filmed by RT in 2012 that he was sure the rebels would never come to the village. This time he was armed with a gun and fought alongside Syrian soldiers.
“They sent terrorists here from all corners of the world to kill Syrian people and each other. Why? I ask the world, why?” he cried out. “While in Europe if a citizen is simply slapped in his face, there'll be a scandal. While Syrians – how many victims, how many hundreds of thousands have been slaughtered? When it will stop?”
http://rt.com/news/syria-chistian-vallage-fighting-766/
12/9/13
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Syrian Army Continues Field Progress in Ma’loula, Aleppo, Other Cities...
ReplyDeleteThe Syrian army continued its field progress in Ma'loua, Aleppo and in other Syria provinces, killing a large number of militants and destroying the terrorists' weapons as well as dens.
An official source told SANA that an army unit killed the leader of a terrorist group affiliated to al-Nusra Front southwest of Ma'loula, along with a number of his group's members as other units razed terrorists' dens in Ras al-Ein farms and al-Sarkha town north of Maaloula.
Army units also destroyed a warehouse used for manufacturing explosive devices and terrorists' dens in a string of operations in Eastern Gouta and Damascus southern and northern countryside.
The Syrian military further carried out military operations southeast of al-Eb farms in Douma, eliminating an armed terrorist group.
An army unit eliminated a militant group south of the Teachers' Tower in Jobar neighborhood, also killing a number of terrorists, among them Sameh Awda in Barzeh neighborhood.
In Aleppo, a military source said in a statement to SANA that the army destroyed cars loaded with weapons and ammunition in al-Mansoura, Kafr Dael and Bashnatra.
The source noted that the cars were coming from Turkey and abound for the terrorists in the aforementioned areas.
A unit of the armed forces eliminated all members of a terrorist group calling itself 'Al-Furat Battalion' in al-Sinaa neighborhood in the city of Deir Ezzor, according to an official source.
The Syria army destroyed a missiles' depot and dens for terrorist groups in the countryside of al-Hasaka, Deir Ezzor and Daraa, killing and injuring their members.
http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=110152&cid=23&fromval=1
12/9/13
Syrie: Maaloula, terrain de chasse des tireurs embusqués...
ReplyDeleteAFP - "Maaloula, cité de la culture et de l'histoire, vous souhaite la bienvenue", assure un panneau à l'entrée de la plus célèbre localité chrétienne de Syrie. Mais à l'intérieur, des tireurs embusqués ouvrent le feu sur des cibles dans les rues désertes, où une équipe de l'AFP a échappé aux balles des rebelles.
Dans cette ville fantôme, les militaires combattent un ennemi invisible.
"On ne le voit jamais mais on entend le claquement de ses balles tirées avec des Gragunov", le fusil mitrailleur russe préféré des francs-tireurs, raconte un soldat tapi derrière un mur, l'arme à la main.
Une voiture est arrêtée sur le bord de la route, le pare-brise explosé. Le chauffeur est vraisemblablement mort, ses affaires gisent sur la chaussée.
Alors que le photographe de l'AFP venait de traverser la rue, le journaliste qui le suivait a été la cible de tirs. Il a dû s'allonger derrière un muret sur le terre-plein de la chaussée pour échapper au franc-tireur.
Dès qu'il essayait de bouger, le tireur faisait immédiatement feu. Il a fallu que des soldats tirent dans sa direction pour que le journaliste puisse s'échapper vers une cour entre deux maisons...http://www.france24.com/fr/20130918-syrie-maaloula-terrain-chasse-tireurs-embusques
18/9/13
Genève-2: Damas proposera une trêve à l'opposition...
ReplyDeleteLes autorités syriennes envisagent d'appeler l'opposition à conclure une trêve lors de la prochaine conférence internationale sur la Syrie, baptisée Genève-2, a annoncé dans une interview au quotidien Guardian Qadri Jamil, vice-premier ministre syrien pour les Affaires économiques.
"Arrêt de l'intervention étrangère, trêve et lancement d'un processus politique permettant au peuple syrien de disposer de lui-même de façon démocratique et sans ingérence extérieure", a répondu M.Jamil, interrogé sur les principaux points de la stratégie que Damas envisageait de présenter à Genève.
Qadri Jamil a souligné qu'il s'agissait d'une solution optimale pour toutes les parties en conflit qui ne laisserait ni vainqueurs, ni vaincus, dans ce conflit qui dure depuis deux ans et demi.
L'homme politique a noté que la Syrie avait d'ores et déjà connu une série de changements, et que ce pays avait aujourd'hui besoin de soutien et non pas de pressions.
"Ne craignez pas que le régime se maintienne sous sa forme actuelle. Au niveau des aspects pratiques, l'ancien régime n'existe plus. Afin que nos réformes soient mises en place, l'Occident et toutes les autres parties impliquées dans les processus syriens cesser de prendre les décisions à notre place", a-t-il ajouté.
La conférence Genève-2, censée reprendre les lignes de l'accord international signé à Genève le 30 juin 2012, doit réunir à une même table des responsables du régime syrien et de l'opposition pour essayer de trouver une solution politique négociée entre Damas et la rébellion. Toutefois, l'opposition syrienne refuse de prendre part à cette réunion tant que Bachar el-Assad sera au pouvoir.
http://fr.rian.ru/world/20130920/199350108.html
20/9/13
Delegation from Syria’s Maaloula thanks Aoun for support....Maaloula had become a ghost town, apart for "some armed men who remained to fight against the extremist [Syrian] rebels."....
ReplyDeleteBEIRUT: A visiting delegation from the predominantly Syrian Christian town of Maaloula thanked MP Michel Aoun Saturday and voiced concern about the fate of their fellow town folk.
“We came to thank Aoun on his stances and he is a man who always says the truth while some people tried to change the reality of what happened in Maaloula,” Suhail Saadeh, who headed the delegation, told reporters after talks with Aoun in Rabieh.
“We also came to invite him to a Mass we will be holding Tuesday at the Greek Catholic Church in Beirut,” he added.
Saadeh said Maaloula had become a ghost town, apart for "some armed men who remained to fight against the extremist [Syrian] rebels."
“The Islamist group has taken control of the Maaloula hills where St. Sarkis Monastery is located,” he added.
Earlier this month, the Syrian town came under attack from the Jihadist Nusra Front, a group linked to Al-Qaeda that has been listed as a terrorist organization by the United States.
Media reports said the Islamist fighters attacked and looted churches and graveyards in Maaloula, where many of its inhabitants speak Aramaic – the language spoken by Jesus.
“Many people did not believe that there are martyrs from Maaloula or the fact that the Nusra Front entered the town, destroyed some churches, monasteries and houses and tried to convert the residents [to Islam],” Suhail said, adding that six of the town’s population had been killed.
He also said that 450 Christian families had fled the town to nearby Syrian villages and across the border into Lebanon as a result of the attacks.
Saadeh said some Christian families were being hosted in a town near Maaloula where many were from Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Asked about the reasons behind the Jihadist attack on the historic town, Saadeh said residents neither supported the regime or the rebels.
“But Maaloula links several other villages where the Nusra Front is located and operates military centers but at the same time, these areas are also connected to the Lebanese region of Arsal,” he said.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2013/Sep-21/232106-delegation-from-syrias-maaloula-thanks-aoun-for-support.ashx#ixzz2fXg9rmjy
21/9/13
Syrian militants destroy ancient Christian church in Maaloula...
ReplyDeleteMAALOULA, Syria, September 29 (Itar-Tass) - Syrian militants have annihilated one of the most ancient active Christian churches in the world and have either stolen or destroyed its widely acclaimed icons, Itar-Tass correspondent covering the crisis in Syria said in his eyewitness dispatch from the small town of Maaloula, known as one of a handful of places where people still speak and pray in Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago…
The Church in the name of St Sergius and St Bacchus, two Roman warriors put to death for their faith in Christ during the reign of Emperor Maximilian, was built at the beginning of the 4th century. Most recently, its compound was housing a convent but the nuns had to resettle urgently to the Convent of St Thecla, also in Maaloula, about a month ago when militants of the Jabhat at-Nusra terrorist front drove into the town.
The nuns and about forty orphaned children are still taking shelter in Mar Takla, as the convent is known in Arabic. It is totally impossible to approach its territory even now, as the militants open dense fire from sniping rifles, sparing no one including journalists.
The problem is that standing nearby the St Sergius and Bacchus’s Church /called by the local residents Mar Sarkis or Abu Serga/ is the hotel Safir that provided accommodation to numerous Christian pilgrims and tourists in the past but was then seized by Islamic extremists.
Syrian government troops have practically razed the building to the ground but the militants are still hiding out in its basement floors and in the adjoining caves, which the Christians monks reshaped into cells.
The dwellings that were once the hermitages for contemplation of divine issues and prayer have now turned into reinforced positions for incessant firing.
The list of works of art and historic relics that have been lost forever in Mar Sarkis includes the invaluable icon of St Sergius painted in the 13th century that the believers and visitors could see earlier right at the entrance. The iconostasis and its central icons of the Virgin Mary with Jesus the Hierarch have been scourged.
The latter icon always amazed researchers for the fact it showed Jesus wearing a long silk dress with gold threads - a style of icon-painting much more typical of the 18th century Damascus than of the earliest centuries of Christianity.
The altar of the church dedicated to St Sergius and Bacchus does not exist anymore either. Its semicircular shape and the small enough flange were clearly indicative of its linkage to pagan altars.
Only fragments of it remain today.....http://www.itar-tass.com/c32/895365.html
29/9/13
Syria's minority Christians under threat from extremist Muslim rebels...
ReplyDeleteDAMASCUS — The Arab Spring has turned very wintry for many Christians in the Middle East.
As the Christian minority in Syria celebrates Christmas, local leaders say they feel increasingly imperiled by extremist Muslim rebels, an added threat amid a deadly civil war.
Christians and Muslims co-existed for centuries in the region, but in several countries including Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, ultra-conservative Islamic groups have launched violent attacks on minority groups in order to rally their supporters against infidels and propel themselves to power.
Extremist rebels regularly shell Christian neighborhoods in Damascus and kidnap Christians for ransom in areas under their control. GlobalPost has learned that Christians are also being kidnapped in Damascus by militias supporting Bashar al-Assad.
Some 10 percent of Syria's 22.5 million people are Christian, both Orthodox and Catholic. Each Christian faith has its own story.............http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/syria/131224/syria-minority-christians-under-threat-extremists
25/12/13