Chaldean Catholic Church burned

One of the oldest churches in Syria was set on fire on Monday of this week, and hundreds of Chaldean Christians were taken hostage by ISIS militants in the hills located in the North East of the country, following an attack on two villages.

The jihadists set fire to the Catholic church in Tal Hermez, one of the oldest churches in Syria and demanded the release of their prisoners, currently being held by the Kurdish Peshmerga, in exchange for the hostages.  Otherwise, they have threatened to kill them.

The attack began on Monday at dawn with a raid on a village near Tell Tamer, in the Al-Hasakah, where many Assyrian-Chaldean Syrians live.  Women and children were gathered in a part of the village which is dominated by jihadists while the men were transported to the mountains of Abd al-Aziz.

Before the civil war in Syria began in 2011, there were 2 million Christians living in that country, among which, more than 400,000 were Catholic.  Because of the conflict though, thousands of Christians have fled to other countries out of fear of persecution by jihadist groups and by al-Quaeda.

The Syrian Press Agency Sana has confirmed that hundreds of ISIS militiamen riding transport vehicles have launched attacks in several villages throughout Syria, including Tal Hermez, Shamiram Tal, Tal Riman, Tal Nasra, al-Agibash, Toma and Yalda al-Haooz, located in eastern regions of the country.  Dozens of people have been killed.

ISIS hopes to open a corridor to Turkey in order to facilitate the passage of arms and mercenaries.