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WAR WITH ISIS: MILITANTS KIDNAP UP TO 90 ASSYRIAN CHRISTIAN MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN FROM VILLAGES IN NORTH-EAST SYRIA
The jihadis may be responding to Syrian Kurdish military advances in
that part of the country
PATRICK COCKBURN
ERBIL
Tuesday 24 February 2015
Isis fighters have kidnapped at least 90 Assyrian Christians from
villages in north-east Syria, most of whom are women and children,
according to local sources. Isis frequently uses the taking of
hostages, either individuals or whole communities, as a means of
asserting its power.
The fighters swept into a string of 35 Assyrian villages on the Khabur
River 50 miles south of Qomishli early on Monday morning. Johanna
Towaya, a Christian community leader in Erbil, says that people from
the area "say that 12 village guards were killed and between 150 and
200 villagers were taken hostage". Two churches have been burnt. A
further 3,000 have fled to territory held by Kurdish forces.
In the city of Hassakeh, local clergy say that their church and
community hall are over-crowded with refugees who are being farmed
out to stay with local Christian families. Information is sparse
because phone lines to the area are down and mobile phones are not
being answered.
The Assyrian Christian villagers in this part of Syria are the
descendants of survivors of two infamous massacres in the 20th
century. The first was the genocide, which was not just confined to
Armenians, conducted by the Turkish government between 1915 and 1918.
There was a further smaller slaughter of Assyrian Christians in Iraq
in 1933 at the conclusion of the British Mandate which culminated with
the killing of at least 600 Assyrian at Simele in northern Iraq. The
Assyrians in the Khabur area always refer to their villages and towns
as "camps" to emphasise their hope to return to their original villages
and towns in Iraq.
Many of the Christians taken hostage come from the village of Tal
Shamiran and have been moved to Isis-controlled villages. This not
the first time this has happened in eastern Syria. Before the siege of
the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani last year, Isis kidnapped busloads
of Kurdish children returning from Aleppo.
Isis may be responding to Syrian Kurdish military advances in
north-east Syria. Despite a siege of 134 days, Isis failed to capture
the city of Kobani despite losing upwards of 1,000 fighters and was
driven out by the YPG (People's Protection Units) backed by intense
US air strikes. The YPG has also been advancing in Hassakeh province,
with Assyrian militia fighting beside them, since it launched an
offensive at the weekend. They are threatening the Isis-controlled
town of Tal Hamis and their advance is supported by US air strikes.
Some 700,000 Christians or 40 per cent of the total number of
Christians in Syria have left the country since 2011. Not only Isis
but most other rebel groups are hostile to Christians whom they see
as supporters of the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
In Damascus, the Christian Bab Touma district has been regularly
shelled by rebel mortars firing randomly into its close- packed
houses. In Iraq, long established Christian communities are taking
flight with the total Christian population dropping from one million
at the time of the American-led invasion of 2003 to 250,000 today. And
many of those remaining are refugees, having been forced to flee from
Mosul and towns in the Nineveh Plain.
Isis persecutes Christians, demanding that they convert to Islam,
pay an onerous tax or chose between death and exile. But they have
not killed them as they have Yazidis or Shia Muslims and reports of
churches being destroyed have generally turned out to false.
Patrick Cockburn is the author of 'The Rise of Islamic State: Isis
and the New Sunni Revolution'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/war-with-isis-militants-kidnap-up-to-90-assyrian-christian-men-women-and-children-from-villages-in-northeast-syria-10067906.html
The jihadis may be responding to Syrian Kurdish military advances in
that part of the country
PATRICK COCKBURN
ERBIL
Tuesday 24 February 2015
Isis fighters have kidnapped at least 90 Assyrian Christians from
villages in north-east Syria, most of whom are women and children,
according to local sources. Isis frequently uses the taking of
hostages, either individuals or whole communities, as a means of
asserting its power.
The fighters swept into a string of 35 Assyrian villages on the Khabur
River 50 miles south of Qomishli early on Monday morning. Johanna
Towaya, a Christian community leader in Erbil, says that people from
the area "say that 12 village guards were killed and between 150 and
200 villagers were taken hostage". Two churches have been burnt. A
further 3,000 have fled to territory held by Kurdish forces.
In the city of Hassakeh, local clergy say that their church and
community hall are over-crowded with refugees who are being farmed
out to stay with local Christian families. Information is sparse
because phone lines to the area are down and mobile phones are not
being answered.
The Assyrian Christian villagers in this part of Syria are the
descendants of survivors of two infamous massacres in the 20th
century. The first was the genocide, which was not just confined to
Armenians, conducted by the Turkish government between 1915 and 1918.
There was a further smaller slaughter of Assyrian Christians in Iraq
in 1933 at the conclusion of the British Mandate which culminated with
the killing of at least 600 Assyrian at Simele in northern Iraq. The
Assyrians in the Khabur area always refer to their villages and towns
as "camps" to emphasise their hope to return to their original villages
and towns in Iraq.
Many of the Christians taken hostage come from the village of Tal
Shamiran and have been moved to Isis-controlled villages. This not
the first time this has happened in eastern Syria. Before the siege of
the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani last year, Isis kidnapped busloads
of Kurdish children returning from Aleppo.
Isis may be responding to Syrian Kurdish military advances in
north-east Syria. Despite a siege of 134 days, Isis failed to capture
the city of Kobani despite losing upwards of 1,000 fighters and was
driven out by the YPG (People's Protection Units) backed by intense
US air strikes. The YPG has also been advancing in Hassakeh province,
with Assyrian militia fighting beside them, since it launched an
offensive at the weekend. They are threatening the Isis-controlled
town of Tal Hamis and their advance is supported by US air strikes.
Some 700,000 Christians or 40 per cent of the total number of
Christians in Syria have left the country since 2011. Not only Isis
but most other rebel groups are hostile to Christians whom they see
as supporters of the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
In Damascus, the Christian Bab Touma district has been regularly
shelled by rebel mortars firing randomly into its close- packed
houses. In Iraq, long established Christian communities are taking
flight with the total Christian population dropping from one million
at the time of the American-led invasion of 2003 to 250,000 today. And
many of those remaining are refugees, having been forced to flee from
Mosul and towns in the Nineveh Plain.
Isis persecutes Christians, demanding that they convert to Islam,
pay an onerous tax or chose between death and exile. But they have
not killed them as they have Yazidis or Shia Muslims and reports of
churches being destroyed have generally turned out to false.
Patrick Cockburn is the author of 'The Rise of Islamic State: Isis
and the New Sunni Revolution'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/war-with-isis-militants-kidnap-up-to-90-assyrian-christian-men-women-and-children-from-villages-in-northeast-syria-10067906.html