Syria: Christian village now a ‘ghost town’
By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
DAMASCUS, SYRIA (Worthy News)– Homes have been vandalized and plundered while the bodies of Christians lie along the roads of a small Christian village north of Damascus after it was invaded by Islamist insurgents last Thursday.
The village of Maaloula, a symbol of the Syrian Christian tradition where Aramaic is still spoken, is now a ghost town, according to AsiaNews.
Sources told AsiaNews that Islamist insurgents broke into village homes, killing some residents while taking others hostage; the dead were left in the streets as a warning to other villagers who are now too afraid to leave, making them prisoners in their own homes.
The situation is also severe for several hundred villagers who managed to escape, but had to leave all their belongings behind.
Entire families have left everything they had in Maaloula, an anonymous source told AsiaNews. They need not only food and water, but spiritual support, especially the elderly, women and children.
Rebels of the Free Syrian Army with the support of the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Brigades had captured Maaloula after defeating government forces defending the village.
After taking total control of the town, Islamists proceeded to desecrate Christian buildings, destroying the cross on the dome of the Greek-Catholic monastery of Saints Sergius and Bacchus.
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