Syrian sources say ISIS executed 15 Christians – with more killing to come
Syrian Christians are being murdered, kidnapped, driven out of their country, or displaced within Syria. (Photo/AFP)
CRUX
Covering all things Catholics
By Inés San Martín
Vatican correspondent
ROME — According to sources in the Assyrian Christian Church, at least 15 of the 350 hostages taken by ISIS in Assyrian villages in Syria in the past week have been shot, beheaded, or both.
The news of the killings was reported by Assyrian Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana to Aid to the Church in Need, an international Catholic charity based in Germany that supports persecuted Christians.
“Around 15 young Assyrians are martyred,” Youkhana reported. “Many of them were fighting to defend and protect their villages and families.”
Youkhana heads a Christian aid program in Dohuk, Iraq, and said he had received the information about the killings from an Assyrian Christian lawyer who lives in the Syrian town of Hassak.
Aid to the Church in Need, which says that 350 hostages have been taken, said another source gave the group an unconfirmed report that a mosque in the Arab Sunni village of Bab Alfaraj, Syria, had called on people to attend “a mass killing of infidels” at Mount Abdul Aziz scheduled for Friday.
Youkhana said that at this point, the only Assyrians left behind are those joining forces with the Kurdish army to try to stop the ISIS advance. The rest have either been captured or are heading towards the border with Turkey that has been closed to all Syrian citizens.
“There are 200 families who were running away and trying to escape to Turkey, but the border is closed for Syrians. No Syrian can cross into Turkey,” Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo told Catholic News Agency Feb. 26.
Hindo oversees the Syrian archdiocese of Hassake, located in the Al-Hasakah region of Syria, which sits between Turkey and Iraq.
Recent attacks by ISIS in Syrian villages have resulted in an increase in the number of voices condemning the terrorist organization and also of those who seek a greater commitment from the international community.
On Wednesday, both the United Nations Security Council and the United States “strongly condemned” this week’s abductions and demanded the immediate release of all civilians, including children and elderly, taken by the Islamic State.
Religious leaders in Syria are hoping for an even stronger commitment.
The papal ambassador to Syria, Italian Archbishop Mario Zenari, told Vatican Radio on Thursday that the Christians in the country feels abandoned by the international community.
“This is the perception I get here from people in general and Christians in particular,” Zenari said. “Unfortunately, they can’t see any tangible results, and this is understandable in a way.”
Talking about the kidnappings, Zenari said that these events create fear, particularly among minority groups, because they are the most exposed and “have always been the weakest link in the chain.”
Questioned about what can be done to stop the advance of ISIS, Zenari said that although the international community is already trying to take action, measures such as cutting supply lines and blocking their bank accounts must continue.
Zenari also called for greater efforts to prevent people from leaving Europe and coming to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS.
The papal ambassador said that the crisis in Syria, marked by a four-year civil war and a self-proclaimed ISIS caliphate, is the most serious humanitarian catastrophe since the Second World War.
The war already has claimed the lives of 200,000 people, left more than 1 million wounded, created 4 million refugees and displaced 7 million people inside the country.
The Melkite archbishop of Aleppo, Monsignor Jean-Clement Jeanbart, recently complained that the world has forgotten about what’s going on in Syria, saying that while Christians are being beheaded, crucified, executed, “You, in Europe, go to sleep so you don’t see them.”
“The very serious massacre in Paris, Charlie Hebdo, drew the attention of the world powers in less than 24 hours,” Jeanbart said, speaking on Thursday to the Italian Service for Religious Information.
“For these innocent people, guilty only of professing the Christian faith, no one ever has a word, and this is really terrible,” he said