Syria Crisis: Dozens Of Christians Evacuated From Homs

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Syria Crisis: Dozens Of Christians Evacuated From Homs

July 11th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

DAMASCUS, Syria — A group of Christians trapped in the besieged, bombed-out Syrian city of Homs has been evacuated after a deal between the army and rebels, a priest involved in the evacuation efforts said Wednesday.

Maximos al-Jamal, a Greek Orthodox priest who has been following the plight of Syrian Christians in Homs, said 63 people were taken out to safety over the past 24 hours.

Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Syria’s population, say they are particularly vulnerable to the violence sweeping the country of 22 million people. They are fearful that Syria will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Muslim groups.

Homs, Syria’s third largest city, has a substantial Christian population and has been one of the hardest-hit regions since the uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime began in March 2011. Rebels control several neighborhoods, which has sparked several rounds of intense attacks by government troops over the past months.

The rebels have controlled the Christian neighborhoods of Hamidiyeh and Bustan Diwan since early February. Sporadic clashes with government troops have already forced tens of thousands of Christians to flee the neighborhoods to a relatively safe area known as the Valley of the Christians, just outside Homs. Those that stayed faced increasing danger.

Al-Jamal says about 100 of the civilians who remained trapped in the two besieged Homs neighborhoods are Christians, down from thousands who lived in the area before the uprising began.

He has said he feared the rebels wanted to keep the Christians in the city as a bargaining chip while the army’s bombardment and ground attacks intensified.

“Gunmen have told the besieged people that if you go out of these areas, we will die,” al-Jamal told The Associated Press Wednesday.

But finally, he said a deal was struck between the army and armed gunmen in those areas and 24 civilians were evacuated on Tuesday and 39 on Wednesday, most of them Christians. Mediation was ongoing to get the remaining civilians out, he added.

Syrian Christians have largely stuck by Assad, fearing the strength of Islamist hard-liners in the uprising against his rule.

“I stayed inside Hamidiyeh to protect the churches from looting. I saved 14 icons from the St. George church which has been destroyed,” said Jihad Akhras, who was among those who were evacuated Wednesday.

He said the situation inside Hamidiyeh and Bistan al-Diwan was “tragic” with barely enough food for those who remain trapped there.

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This citizen journalism image provided by Kafarsouseh Revolt, taken on Saturday, July 7, 2012 purports to show protesters chanting slogans and carrying Syrian revolutionary flags during a demonstration in Kafar Souseh, Damascus, Syria. (AP Photo/Kafarsouseh Revolt)

China backs Kofi Annan’s demand to include Iran in talks on the crisis in Syria, Reuters reported on Wednesday. A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said Beijing believes that “the appropriate resolution of the Syria issue cannot be separated from the countries in the region.”

Western powers oppose Iran’s participation in talks on the crisis. “I don’t think anybody with a straight face could argue that Iran has had a positive impact on developments in Syria,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

Read more on HuffPost World.

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In this Tuesday, July 10, 2012 photo Syrian refugees, Om Mohammed ( left), 20, and Om Waleed, 30, who have recently arrived to Jordan, hang up their laundry, in Al Rumtha, Jordan. Workers are racing against time to stave off an impending humanitarian crisis if Syrian refugee numbers continue to surge before camps in Jordan are ready to host them. Jordan shelters at least 140,000 Syrians who fled the autocratic rule and military onslaught of President Bashar Assad since March 2011. (AP photo/Mohammad Hannon)

Reuters reports that three people were killed in northern Lebanon when Syrian mortars hit their villages on Tuesday. Mortar fire killed five Lebanese villagers earlier this week, including a 16-year-old girl.

Syria’s border with Lebanon has become more volatile in recent months, and fears have grown that the country could be drawn into the conflict. Reuters explains:

Lebanon has long been a political battleground for bigger regional powers. Damascus had a major military presence in its smaller coastal neighbour for 29 years. Assad withdrew his troops in 2005, but Damascus is still the main external player in the delicately balanced sectarian politics of a country torn apart by a 1975-90 civil war… There is concern that a proxy conflict is being fought out, with Saudi Arabia and Qatar pouring funds into Tripoli through Salafi Islamist groups – increasingly powerful in Lebanon – against Lebanon’s influential Shi’ite Hezbollah and Amal factions, which back the Alawite-led government in Damascus.

Reuters reports a Syrian Red Crescent aid worker was shot and killed in the city of Deir el-Zour, Syria. Khaled Khaffaji was shot on Monday in a clearly marked ambulance, Reuters writes, the fifth member of the aid group to be killed in Syria.

“We are devastated. The loss of Khaled is completely unacceptable,” the president of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Abdul Rahman al-Attar said in a statement.

Video purports to show shelling in the city of Homs on Monday July 9, 2012. (Video could not independently be verified)

Syrian President Bashar Assad told international envoy Kofi Annan that he wants to approach Syria’s conflict “step by step,” Annan said on Tuesday.

“He made a suggestion of building an approach from the ground up in some of the districts where we have extreme violence – to try and contain the violence in those districts and, step by step, build up and end the violence across the country,” Annan told Reuters. The envoy did not provide more details.