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Subscribe to RSSRebels in Syria claim new video shows their forces shooting down an Army helicopter as it was bombarding a Damascus neighborhood. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.
The United States called reports of execution-style slayings by Syrian government forces "brutal" and a Christian archbishop fled Syria with several priests after their offices were ransacked, news services reported on Monday.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that of more than 300 people killed some 150 had been killed in a single location around the Syrian capital Damascus. She cited reports from human rights activists that some were killed point-blank "in the most brutal way at the hands of the regime."
Syrian opposition activists say as many as 600 people, including women and children, were killed by government forces in the Damascus suburb of Daraya.
Also on Monday, fighter planes fired two rockets at targets on the eastern edge of Damascus, opposition activists said, the same day a military helicopter was apparently shot down by rebels.
It was the first time a warplane has struck areas close to the capital, an activist source told Reuters.
Video taken by activists showed a fighter plane swooping in on a built-up area. An explosion is heard and a voice says: "It is firing rockets."
320 found killed in Syria; rebels blame Assad
Abu Qais, a Sunni Muslim in the Syrian capital, told The Associated Press that six members of his extended family have been killed by gunmen who belong to the minority Alawite sect of President Bashar Assad. The gunmen who grabbed one of his distant cousins called up his family while they were torturing him "so they could hear his screams," said Abu Qais, an anti-Assad activist who spoke on condition his full name not be used for fear of reprisals.
Sectarian slayings between Syria's Sunni majority and the Alawite minority have been a grim reality of Syria's 17-month-old conflict, and they have only accelerated as the country falls into outright civil war. Sunnis have largely backed the uprising against Assad's rule, while the Alawites — members of an offshoot of Shiism — have firmly stood behind the regime, where they fill the leadership ranks.
The number of people fleeing the fighting in Syria continues to rise with more than 200,000 leaving for neighboring countries because of continuing violence. Government forces continue to shell Aleppo and other suburbs of Damascus. Jonathan Miller Channel 4 Europe reports.
And as tit-for-tat killings have swelled, so has the segregation of the two communities as they flee each other. In Damascus and other cities, Sunnis and Alawites avoid venturing into each other's neighborhoods for fear of being snatched. Some Alawite districts in the capital are now ringed with checkpoints manned not only by security forces but also residents who have taken up arms to protect their homes.
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Those in mixed neighborhoods flee their homes to move into safer enclaves dominated by their community — whether in the same city or in another part of the country.
"Mutual threats in Damascus have succeeded in triggering migration," said Fateh Jamous, an Alawite activist from Latakia, the Mediterranean coastal city where many Alawites have fled. Latakia itself has so far represented a sort of tense neutral ground — its population is about half Sunni, half Alawite. "That created a sort of balance of terror. So far, it has been generally peaceful," he said by telephone from Latakia.
Christians, too, are being caught up in the sectarian strife. The Catholic news agency Fides reported that the Melchite Greek Catholic archbishop of Aleppo, Jean-Clement Jeanbart, and a number of priests fled to Lebanon after their offices in Aleppo were ransacked
The Melchite Greek Catholic Church is a community of Middle Eastern Christians who are in full communion with Rome.
Fides said "unidentified groups who want to feed a religious war and drag the Syrian population into sectarian conflicts" attacked the Christian area in the old quarter of Aleppo.
A Byzantine Christian museum and an office of the Maronite Christian faith were also damaged, the report said.
There are several Christian groups in Syria, many of which have been in the region since pre-Islamic times.
Christians make up around 10 percent of the population and many have remained loyal to Assad, fearing that the majority Sunni Muslims would trample on religious rights if they took power.
However, some senior members of the opposition are also Christians.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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May God Bless Them All!
Another day in the lives of the people who practice the most violent religion on earth. I do not want to send any U.S. military men and women to Syria, nor do I want to use (waste) money or resources to help either side of this $hithole. I want the people and the governmentof the U.S.A. to take notice of how the Muslims solve their problems. No more immigration for them into the U.S. We have to preserve our way of life, and keep it safe from the minions of Islamic terrorism.
the rebels equal terrors from all over the Arab countries, Christians were living in peace in bashar asd term, these are terrors, what ever hurt Christians in Syria are the rebels not the army
pr correct; the Catholic community has been loyal to the government, ; the rebels are attacking and killing the Christians, there are several rebel forces, however the majority are radical Muslims.
Sooner or later Muslims kill Christians, unless a tyrant holds them down.
The warm and fuzzy "Free Syrian Army" goons are solely responsible. There are no "unidentified" persecutors of Christians in Syria....they are all with the FSA, and the FSA is pro al-queeda. Report that.
Did anybody notice the subterfuge in the news' narrative? American media seeks to portray Syrian Regime as the ones equally involved in the killing of Christians, thus absolving the rebels of their deeds. Would they mind naming the leaders of the Syrian Opposition to allow the world to see who these Christian rebels really are and just how much of they have contributed towards Syria, and especially its Substantial Christian Community?
Barack Obama may be subservient to the Saudi-Zionist lobby, but to believe that a Republican Alternative would scale down on American intransigence, that's naive! Zionist Christians, who form the bulk of supporters for the Republican Party, will not mind killing Christians anywhere in an Israeli Benefit Carnage, not that these Zionists find these goyim just as useful despicables/expendables.
Rahul,
it's TOO Bad, for Muslims,
that Muslim Arab Regimes, and Muslim Persian Regimes
do NOT Spend Their Money
and NOT Think Their Thought
to Train and Equip
THEIR Arab Muslim OR Their Persian Muslim,
Inferior Waqf Soldiers
as Equally Well-As The Hated Jews
Train and Equip
THEIR Jewish/Kurd/Bedouin/Arab
Superior Israeli Soldiers
????
!!!!
"Christians make up around 10 percent of the population and many have remained loyal to Assad, fearing that the majority Sunni Muslims would trample on religious rights if they took power."
These Sunnis are the opposition along with some terrorist groups from Afganistan, Pakistan and Iraq. These are the people we are fighting now in those regions and here in Syria we call them resistance or freedom fighters. Who are we trying to crapola these days. We just don't care as long as Haliburton and Cheney company gets the contracts after all the destruction we have caused by getting the ball rolling on this adventure. Assad is probably the good guy in this whole mess. We are not in peace making business, the money is in the destruction and death business. We are really good at this and we do a wonderful job in exporting this. It is just too bad we are failing in manufacturing of consumer goods. We let the CHINESE do that part of it. If we are not careful it will bite is in the rear end sooner then later.
The Alawite People,
of Whom, Bashir Assad, is The Current Alawite Leader
are NON-Arabs
The People that WE KNOW as Alawite,
Were There, as a Part of The different peoples of The Christian Byzantine Empire's Territories
BEFORE
The Invading Arab Armies of Mohammad and his Murderous Companions INVADED & CONQUERED !!
The Syrian Sunni ARE The descendants of These Arab Invaders,
and The Alawite ARE The descendants of The Latakian peoples that that lived there,
BEFORE The Arabs Came.
The NON-Arab Alawite ARE Fighting VERY HARD against The Arab Sunni
BECAUSE They KNOW
That The Arab Sunni, with a 6-to-1 advantage of fighters
CAN OVERPOWER
The Much-Less-Numerous Alawite fighters,
and The NON-Arab Alawite KNOW, that, The Arab Sunni, Would MASSACRE The Alawite
IF The Arab Sunni HAD THE CHANCE
!!!!
This is why the sunni extremists are flocking from their ME/African affiliates to Syria. To create even more unrest. To take advantage of the sectarian conflict and to turn sects and/or religions against each other. Extreme Islam can only thrive in the most war torn, oppressed, and brain washed parts of the world. They live, breath, and die for totalitarianist domination thorugh propagnada a lies by spreading extreme Islam.
Islamic extremists go to places where people are at their very lowest that can be humanly or inhumanly measured so that they can take that broken person and turn them into another Islamic lunatic robot.
There is no doubt that its the islamic extremist that are taking advantage of this conflict to deface, denounce, and destroy Chistianity.
Soon there will only be one place left in the middle east tolerant enough for people to live free with dignity and that is in Israel.
CVPDude are you kidding when you say Israel is the only place tolerant enough for Christians to live free and with dignity? Watch the you tube clips on settlers and Christians. The settlers use the foulest language against Christians and Jesus that I have ever heard. It's disgusting. The Pope was asking Israel to stop kicking out the Palestinian Christians. The population of Jerusalem for Christians has almost been wiped out. The Israeli government just took land away from Christians near the Holy Sites and made it Jewish parking only. Please, we don't need anymore hasbara(bull). I encourage everyone to look up "If Americans only Knew" you will be really surprised at the racism in Israel.
The Christians who are welcome in Israel are right-wing American evangelicals who are dumb enough to admire the Israeli government. Native Christians, such as the Palestinians and Syrians, are just another despised group. Lebanese Christians occupy a role as Phalangist (neo-nazi) allies of Israel. It's messy.
Oh, horror! Somebody used foul language.
Obviously, they are better of in a country where they can get slaughtered.
neo-nazi allies of Israel. Interesting.
At one time CNN or NBC Honorable Reporter Richard Alqaida Engel reported that the FSA control most of Aleppo , and then Finlay after all kind of pressure he reported that Alqaida was in Syria , and every Muslim fanatic from every rat hole in the extremists Muslim countries are coming to Syria to fight the Assad regime , and these thugs hate Christians and specially the Christians in ME because most of the Christians in the US and Europe can give a damn about the Christians in ME , hell they even helped in displacing the Christians of Iraq to Syria and now they are fleeing every where , Its a shame that we keep on lying about whats really happening in Syria , and I keep wondering , Do we really love Israel that much , that we help in Murdering thousands of innocent people by arming these thugs ??? did we really forget that these thugs with the countries behind them ( Saudia and Qatar ) are the same thugs that attacked here on 9/11 ) ??? Are we willing to destroy Syria and kill all the Christians there , so Iran will weaken by destroying their ally Syria in that region ??? are our politicians that corrupt and that brave that they do not care about the American people and they do not care if our troops end up in another war ??? Because if Syria get cornered and fed up with all this BS from NATO , US , TURKEY , SAUDIS , QATARIS , JORDAN , Israel and all these countries that helping these thugs and start retaliating against these countries or their interests in that area and they should , we will get involve militarily and the Russians not going to stand around again and watch NATO destroy one of their allies , are we willing to end up in WW3 , I really do not think that these politicians of ours ( the lawyers and the business men that never made a decision about wars and people lives ) give a damn about what happened to us or our troops , because sure in the hell they do not act like it . I just hope our Military will take a charge of the situation and do not let these dumb asss make decisions about our lives .
Uh, what are you actually for and against? Damned if I can decipher it.
Man dominating man to his own injury. Critical times hard to deal with, will be here.
nothing new here
Wow,this sounds like our horrible misogynistic,racist,homophobic usa[some would say]
So they burn a book and they murder 30 of us and our officers are punished? And my frickin tax dollars are paying for this nonsense, I want my frickin money back
In the ancient past, both Syria and Egypt were nearly 100% Christian. So was Turkey and Lebanon, even Jordon, also the other North African countries. Now they are minorities in their own lands. Egyptian Coptic is nearly a dead language. In Afghanistan the Buddhists were predominant until the Muslim invaders extinguished the culture and tried to erase all evidence that it ever existed. In Saudi Arabia there were once thriving communities of Christians and Jews. Now they are extinct. Islamists in Saudi Arabia have so much deep contempt for other religions that it is illegal to build a house or temple for any other faith.
Yet when muslims emmigrate to another land they demand respect for their faith, and the right to build mosques, and the right to prosylatize, and the right to marry the infidel women, and the right to kill their own women if they mingle with the infidel.
To profess disbelief in Islam is a form of blasphemy.
The desecration and destruction of Christian communities and historic monuments is simply a pattern. They would do the same in Europe, and the Americas, given the chance.
The act was clearly an assault intended to intimidate. This Syrian uprising is showing its true face on a daily basis, in light of which Assad's isn't looking quite so ugly.
they are truly an abomination.There are those who would be happy if christianity died in the USA as well.If that happened it'd just be muslims and dead people eventually
Had to read way down to find the part that matched the headlines. So it seems under Assad, ancient Christians were allowed to live and thrive. Just like in Egypt before the revolution. Tell me again who the rebels are? And buddhism used to be the religion of Afghanistan?
unbelivevable-3571258 These rebels are the Syrian brother hood extremists that never liked Assaad or any body but them self's for that matter , and the Alqaida thugs from Iraq , Libya , Afghanistan , Tunisia , Lebanon , Saudia , and every little rat hole in the Muslims world , the Saudis and Qataris paying their salaries , NATO and the US arming them and training them Turkey , Lebanon and Jordan smuggling them into Syria , Do you get the picture now buddy ?? We are arming and training the same terrorists that attacked here on 9/11 , thanks to Hillary , McCain , Lieberman , Graham and Mr. Obama too , Go figure .
For you morons out there Sunnis are same people we hold in such a high esteem, who also happen to be made out of the same SAUDIS cloth. Saudis are our deer friends who we allow to keep down the entire middle east. They gave us Osama and many other people who caused us horrific harm. The real enemy in the middle east is Saudi Arabia and their crap WAHABISM!!!!
SERBINAT you miss understood me , that's what I was trying to tell you , I hate the Saudi and Qataris they are our problem.
The Salafis (read Saudi version of Sunni) are busy in Libya bulldozing down Sufi (read liberal Sunni) shrines. Now, tell me again, who are we supporting in Syria?
The Archbishop's flock is being attacked by the Sunni Moslem FSA 'cause Christians and Druze support the Alawite's of Bashar al-Assad.
victoria nuland is a front for the govt. propaganda machine. if it isn't in the written script in front of her she has a hard time answering the question.