Syrian conflict: Islamic State advances in Homs Province - BBC

[Path_Finder]

Syrian conflict: Islamic State advances in Homs Province

Islamic State (IS) fighters have reportedly captured the Syrian town of Maheen, in central Homs Province, from government forces.

They launched the offensive with two suicide car blasts late on Saturday, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.

Clashes were also taking place in nearby Sadad, a mostly-Christian town.

The latest development comes amid air campaigns in Syria by Russia and a US-led coalition.

IS has been expanding from its mainly northern and eastern strongholds towards Homs in central Syria in recent months. The group overran the town of Tadmur - home to the ancient ruins of Palmyra - in May, and later took al-Qaryatain town in August.

The latest offensive on Maheen and Sadad brings IS to within 20km (13 miles) of the main road that links the Syrian capital Damascus to Homs and other cities further north.

bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34693670

So, clashes are also occurring in “nearby Sadad, a mostly-Christian town.”

This is discouraging, I would not think ISIS would currently be making gains.

Aramaic is still spoken in Sadad.

Note:

Maheen is home to a large military complex and arms depot.

Meanwhile, clashes between government troops and IS are said to be continuing on the outskirts of Sadad. The town is home to Syria’s Assyrian Christian minority, where the ancient language of Aramaic is still spoken.

It comes amid continued Russian air strikes in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which Russian officials say are targeting IS and other “terrorist groups”.

However, activists on the ground say the strikes have been hitting moderate rebels and civilians in western areas, where IS have little or no presence.

They said more than 60 people were killed by Syrian army raids and Russian strikes in the northern province of Aleppo on Saturday.

God protect the Christians and really all people of good will.

The above story is certainly alarming, there are many news stories coming out. This one surely is true but I’m not sure about every story that comes out of there.

Assyrian International News Agency: aina.org/news.html

 

[7_Sorrows]

why are we only putting 50 troops on the ground and what are the Russians doing?

 

[abucs]

I hope Sadad can be defended by Russian troops. Obama’s secular ‘equality morality’ means he won’t lift a finger to help out.

 

[7_Sorrows]

I hope Sadad can be defended by Russian troops. Obama’s secular ‘equality morality’ means he won’t lift a finger to help out.

you mean Assad?

 

[Path_Finder]

you mean Assad?

No, Sadad is the name of the town with many Christians where they still speak Aramaic as stated in the original post article.

Clashes were also taking place in nearby Sadad, a mostly Christian town.
bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34693670

 

[Path_Finder]

Syrian Civil War

On October 21, 2013, the town was reportedly overrun by Islamist militants belonging to the al-Nusra Front, who set up loudspeakers in the main square, calling for residents to return to their houses. At least nine people were reported killed, as Syrian Army forces were sent in on October 22 to try and retake the town, sparking fierce resistance from the militants. Locals were unsure as to the reason behind the attack, though medical supplies within the town’s hospital were a possibility, as well as the presence of a military depot nearby.[5]

By October 28, the Syrian Arab Army had taken back control of Sadad. Visiting church leaders and returning villagers found two mass graves of Assyrian/Syriac civilians, including women and children, containing 30 bodies. They were suspected of being massacred by al-Nusra Front militants.[6] Forty-five Christians were killed during the rebel occupation, and several churches were also looted.[7][8]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadad,_Syria

So two years ago, this same town was overrun. I would think, many Christians in Syria have left. Who knows how many remained there.

 

[Path_Finder]

Another significant story is that “Anti-ISIS” journalists were killed in Turkey.

BEIRUT – A prominent member of a secretive monitoring group in Syria that works to expose Islamic State atrocities in the war-ravaged country was found dead Friday along with a friend in southern Turkey, activists said.

Members of the monitoring group, known as Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, accused the Islamic State of killing one of its most high-profile activists, Ibrahim Abdul Qader. He and another Syrian activist identified as Fares Hamadi were found shot and beheaded in their apartment in the Turkish city of Urfa, said Abu Ibrahim al-Raqqawi, a nom de guerre of a founder of the monitoring group.

The group won an International Press Freedom Award this year for providing foreign media with credible news while enduring extraordinarily dangerous conditions.

The killings, if carried out by the Islamic State, would be more evidence of far-reaching intelligence and smuggling networks run by the extremist group in Turkey and possibly other countries that neighbor Syria, analysts said.

aina.org/news/20151030151744.htm

So, this is bad news too.

 

[7_Sorrows]

No, Sadad is the name of the town with many Christians where they still speak Aramaic as stated in the original post article.

Clashes were also taking place in nearby Sadad, a mostly Christian town.
bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34693670

ok. thanks for clarification.

 

[Path_Finder]

We may not get that many Syrian Christians but is it because of the way the United Nations resettlement program works?

**
The State Department Turns Its Back on Syrian Christians and Other Non-Muslim Refugees**
By Nina Shea
National Review Online
Posted 2015-11-02 20:30 GMT

Over the past five years of Syria’s civil war, the United States has admitted a grand total of 53 Syrian Christian refugees, a lone Yazidi, and fewer than ten Druze, Bahá'Ã*s, and Zoroastrians combined. That so few of the Syrian refugees coming here are non-Muslim minorities is due to American reliance on a United Nations refugee-resettlement program that disproportionately excludes them. Past absolute totals of Syrian refugees to the U.S. under this program were small, but as the Obama administration now ramps up refugee quotas by tens of thousands, it would be unconscionable to continue with a process that has consistently forsaken some of the most defenseless and egregiously persecuted of those fleeing Syria.

The gross underrepresentation of the non-Muslim communities in the numbers of Syrian refugees into the U.S. is reflected year after year in the State Department’s public records. They show, for example, that while Syria’s largest non-Muslim group – Christians of the various Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions – constituted 10 percent of Syria’s population before the war, they are only 2.6 percent of the 2,003 Syrian refugees that the United States has accepted since then.

Syria’s Christian population, which before the war numbered 2 million, has since 2011 been decimated in what Pope Francis described as religious “genocide.” Tens of thousands of Aleppo’s 160,000 Christians alone have fled, many to Lebanon, after 1,000 of their community, including two Orthodox bishops, were abducted and murdered, according to Melkite Catholic archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart. In Khabour valley, an Assyrian bishop is frantically trying to raise ransom for 200 hostages whom ISIS threatens to kill, while many others of his diocese have fled to Turkey. Thousands of Yazidis, who numbered 80,000, have left after many of their girls and women were enslaved by ISIS in Raqqa. In Homs, Hassake, and elsewhere, the non-Muslim minorities face, in addition to Assad’s barrel bombs and war’s deprivations, targeted execution, rape, kidnapping, and forced conversion to Islam, prompting their exodus.

Read more at: aina.org/news/20151102153027.htm

 

[bibcat]

So, clashes are also occurring in “nearby Sadad, a mostly-Christian town.”

This is discouraging, I would not think ISIS would currently be making gains.

Aramaic is still spoken in Sadad.

Note:



God protect the Christians and really all people of good will.

The above story is certainly alarming, there are many news stories coming out. This one surely is true but I’m not sure about every story that comes out of there.

Assyrian International News Agency: aina.org/news.html

So much for Putin and his ramshackle air force being a game changer. Mussolini version 2.0 won’t get the job done.