Al-Qaida Linked Rebels Attack Regime-Held Christian Village In Syria

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

BEIRUT - Al-Qaida-linked rebels launched an assault on a regime-held Christian mountain village in the densely populated west of Syria and new clashes erupted near the capital, Damascus, on Wednesday — part of a brutal battle of attrition each side believes it can win despite more than two years of deadlock.

In the attack on the village of Maaloula, rebels commandeered a mountaintop hotel and nearby caves and shelled the community below, said a nun, speaking by phone from a convent in the village. She spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

With the world focused on possible U.S. military action against Syria, there were new signs of fragmentation in rebel ranks, with a small group of jihadis from Russia announcing it has broken away from an umbrella group known as Jabhat al-Nusra.

--CLIP
On Wednesday morning, rebels from the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra group launched the assault on predominantly Christian Maaloula, some 60 kilometres (40 miles) northeast of Damascus, according to a Syrian government official and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-regime group.



Read more: http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Number+Syrian+refugees+tops+million+officials+lobby+Congress/8862199/story.html

[Xithras]

1. Argh. Not Ma'loula!

For those who don't know, Ma'loula is famous for being one of only three villages on the planet where ancient Aramaic is still spoken on a daily basis. The other two are within sight of Ma'loula on the same mountain. Prior to the Islamic conversion in the Middle East and the cultural shift to Arabic, Aramaic was the language spoken throughout the entire region. If you're a Christian (which I'm not), it's best known as the language that Jesus spoke, and is the parent language of modern Hebrew.

The language has survived for thousands of years in that area because it's incredibly isolated and escaped the outside influences that caused it to be abandoned elsewhere. It's only spoken by a few thousand people today, and was already considered an endangered language before the civil war started. If the village is destroyed and the residents disperse, it will mark the end of more than 3000 years of Aramaic written history.

[eissa]

3. THIS x1000^^^^

Ma'loula is not just your run-of-the-mill mountain village. It's a historic World Heritage site with deep connections to the dwindling indigenous Christian population in the region. This is exactly what so many minorities feared would happen once the rebels/terrorists got the upper hand.

[delrem]

2. All hail the "Friends of Syria"! nt

[Nuclear Unicorn]

4. You know what these rebels need?

Our navy and Air Force fighting on their behalf!

[arewenotdemo]

5. I've got to sympathize with Obama and Clinton and Kerry

"Standing up" a unified opposition has to be a bitch of a job.

"With the world focused on possible U.S. military action against Syria, there were new signs of fragmentation in rebel ranks, with a small group of jihadis from Russia announcing it has broken away from an umbrella group known as Jabhat al-Nusra."

[DallasNE]

8. This Comment Confused Me

Putin is supporting Assad with military equipment so these Russians would be on the opposite side as Putin.

[maxsolomon]

19. Chechnya is in Russia

any questions?

[David__77]

6. Obama's proposed actions will purge Syria of Christians.

The Christian community should be mobilized to lobby congress to oppose this anti-Christian war bill. This historical community, so close to the Holy Land, will be completely cleansed if al Qaeda seizes the upper hand in the midst of the chaos.

Christians! Please contact your churches. All! Please contact you elected representatives, especially those who profess concern for the plight of Christians worldwide.

[hrmjustin]

7. The Episcopal Church is always against war.

[daleo]

18. It is as if they took that Prince of Peace stuff.seriously.

[greyl]

21. Unless you asked the Episcopalian Archbishop of New York, William Manning during World War I nt

[hrmjustin]

23. Well The Episcopal Church of today is much different from a century ago.

Even 50 years ago it was known as the republican party at prayer.

[greyl]

24. That's not a bad point at all.

Onward and upward.

[eissa]

9. Same way Bush's war cleansed Iraq of its Christian population

Assyrians, the indigenous people of that country, were forced out in droves, leaving their ancestral homeland by the millions. Most went to Syria. Now they are fleeing there as well. Aside from the Coptic community in Egypt, and a small percentage left in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, the whole region will see the Christians follow the same path as the Jews before them.

[DallasNE]

10. So You Line Up With Assad

Who has used Sarin gas on his own people in this civil war. And you assume that all rebels are al Qaeda. This is the position of Rand Paul.

[David__77]

11. So You Line Up With Al Qaeda

Who cannibalizes its opponents, conducts cleansing operations against religious minorities, etc. This is the position of John McCain.

[dflprincess]

16. And let's not forget how well women are treated when the fundamentalists take over.

And that, in the past, the United States has been slow to grant political asylum to women who were brutalized by the Taliban or similar former allies of our government.

If I were a woman in Syria I think I'd take my chances with Assad.

[David__77]

17. As a gay man...

...I have little doubt I'd take Assad over the insurgents. It requires very little in the way of conjecture. What's the best place to live in Syria right now? Tartous, a firmly pro-government city on the coast that is at peace. Refugees from elsewhere are welcome, but they just have to not stir up trouble. Women are free to dress as they please, night clubs are open, etc. If you go to insurgent-held Aleppo, you better no say anything about Mohammed, even jokingly, or you'll get executed on the spot.

[eissa]

22. OMG, Tartous!

My in-laws used to have a Summer home on the coast. The pictures were just beautiful.

And you are SPOT ON regarding women. My sister-in-laws could travel across the country, as they did many times, dressed as they pleased, and NEVER experienced any kind of harassment. Ever. Try doing that in other Arab countries and be prepared for at the very least some nasty glares, rude comments, or in some places outright sexual assault.

[David__77]

12. And, yes, there are other radical terrorists groups in Syria beside al Qaeda.

Al Qaeda is simply the core driving its military success - the ideological glue holding it together. In Cambodia in the early 70s, not all the terrorists were Khmer Rouge, but it was obvious that genocide would occur if the "revolution" nominally headed by Sihanouk came to power.

[eissa]

13. No, it's the position of a lot of Syrians as well

Supporting a brutal dictator might seem unfathomable to us, but when up against an even more brutal religious extremist terrorist group, it's pretty easy to see why.

So is killing off a population using conventional weapons somehow more acceptable than other methods? Gassing people is inexcusable -- so is tearing into a dead corpse and eating their organs. Let's not pretend that the rebels/terrorists have the moral upper hand in any of this.

[frylock]

14. and dick cheney? are you familiar at all with his position?

perhaps the esteemed Donald Rumsfeld? how about a John McCain or Lindsay Graham? we can play these fucking name-drop games alllllllllllll day.

[JoeyT]

15. Yeah, but it doesn't do any good.

One of the later stages of the dreaded R-Paul-Tourettes is the inability to see any paragraph that contains the names of neo-conservatives. No one can figure out what causes it. Since they later appear to lack any memory of the text in question, it might be some kind of seizure brought on by massive amounts of cognitive dissonance.

[maxsolomon]

20. fait accompli

Syria is being purged of Christians right now, before our government has done anything but rattle sabres.