Islamic State Blows Up Church in Syria on Easter Sunday
by JNS.org
JNS.org – Terrorists from the Islamic State group have reportedly blown up a church in northeastern Syria on Easter Sunday.
The 80-year-old Church of the Virgin Mary in Tel Nasri, an Assyrian village in Syria’s Hassaka province, was destroyed by the terror group, no deaths or injuries were reported, Reuters said, citing a report by the Syrian State News Agency (SANA). Assyrian Christian and Kurdish militia have been battling the Islamic State in the region.
In February, the Islamic State abducted hundreds of Assyrian Christians from their villages in northeastern Syria. Meanwhile in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Assyrian Christians and other minority groups have been persecuted and driven from their homes in northern Iraq as a result of the Islamic State. The terror group has also destroyed numerous churches and antiquities in Iraq as part of an effort to erase Iraq’s non-Islamic past.
Assyrian Christian groups recently spearheaded an effort asking that UN missions from various countries call on the UN Security Council to issue a resolution against Islamic State’s persecution of minorities and to take tangible steps to save those vulnerable groups.