Despite guarantees by the interim Syrian government to respect and protect minorities, sectarian violence has increased in recent days, with Christians and Druze particularly in danger.
Local sources have told the Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), that 38 Christian homes within the village of Al-Soura Al-Kabira have been destroyed. St Michael’s Melkite Greek-Catholic Church has been badly damaged in an attack. It is unknown who carried out the attacks.
Meanwhile militias from the Shia Muslim offshoot Druze community have been engaged in sectarian battles with the Bedouin, reportedly claiming over 350 lives.
Neighbouring Israel has conducted airstrikes in Syria in support of the Druze, a lot of whom live in Israeli territory and serve within the Israeli Defence Force.
Speaking of the anti-Christian attack, one local told ACN, “This community has lost every thing. They had little or no to start with – they were already among the many poorest within the region – and now they don’t have anything left.”
The interim Syrian government is headed by HTS, a militant group that began life as an offshoot of al-Qaeda. Despite such origins, the brand new government has given assurances to each locals and the international community that it’s committed to respecting the rights of minorities.
However, it seems that the multitude of armed groups within the country, a lot of which usually are not directly controlled by HTS, make such an aspiration difficult to say the least, and their assurances have done little to ease the fears of Christians and other minorities in light of concerning developments.
In March a whole bunch of Alawites, the minority group from which deposed former President Bashar al-Assad got here, were massacred.
Less than a month ago, Mar Elias Orthodox Church in Damascus became the victim of a suicide bombing that killed greater than 30 people and injured 54. The extremist jihadist group Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah claimed responsibility for the attack.
It has given rise to concerns that HTS is unable to regulate what goes on in every a part of a rustic that has been wracked by over a decade of internal conflict between a number of various groups and identities.
The suicide bombing has caused Syria’s Christians to lose hope.
“This incident will make Christians and church leaders survive their tiptoes waiting for the following attack,” one local Christian told Open Doors.
“We pray that the international community and the blood of those martyrs will advocate for the remaining of the Christians in Syria.”
A young Christian woman from Damascus told Open Doors, “I lost all hope that there’s any life left here for us.”
 Despite guarantees by the interim Syrian government to respect and protect minorities,...){kind=link}