Witness in Ma’loula: “The Gunmen Wanted to Kill as Many Christians as Possible”

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On 5 September, Syrian opposition forces attempted to seize the predominantly-Christian town of Ma’loula, located 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Damascus. Our VOR correspondent managed to reach the scene, and spoke to an eyewitness of the attack, Wael Malas. The town of Ma’loula is one of the last places where Western Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus Christ, is still a living vernacular. Government troops repulsed the attack, but militants from Jabhat al-Nusra and al-Qaeda managed to gain a foothold on the surrounding heights, from where they continued to bombard the town below.

Christian activist Wael Malas told VOR about the assault on the town. We asked him what happened there and he said:

I was visiting relatives in Ma’loula, and had dropped in on some monastics when terrorists from Jabhat al-Nusra and other armed bands stormed the town. They captured the Convent of Mar Taqla, the oldest convent in the world, the Monastery of the Holy Prophet Elias, and the tourist hotel. After that, they began destroying buildings and desecrating holy places. They drove off most of the monastics, but they took some captive, and they killed some of the priests. The gunmen stole all the crosses, lampstands, and anything that might have any resale value from the churches. They destroyed the rest. Now, the militants use the two monasteries as strongpoints, as they’re higher than the town is. On top of all that, we’ve noticed gunmen toting some strange weapons that we’ve never seen before; I can’t describe them.

It all started when suicide bombers in a car blew themselves up at an army checkpoint near the town, killing a large number of soldiers. After that, several dozen vehicles with heavy weapons entered the town, with opposition fighters marching alongside. The militants seemed to number in the thousands, I couldn’t count them all, it seemed as though they’d sent all of their forces to Ma’loula.  When they entered the city, they shouted that they’d cleanse all sinners from the earth. Their goal was to kill as many Christians as they could and blow up the as many churches as they could. I’d like to tell you that the world media doesn’t mention one terrible fact… the militants began to check people’s passports, and if they saw that someone had a Christian name, they immediately shot him in the head, and went to check the papers of the next resident.

I only managed to escape because we weren’t far from the main highway during the assault on the town; we managed to find a bus, the driver packed it to the gills and escaped. I was one of the lucky ones. There were women and kids with us, all of us only had the clothes on our backs. A few hours later, we learned that the highway was in rebel hands.

6 September 2013

Voice of Russia World Service

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2013_09_06/Ochevidec-Cel-boevikov-bila-ubit-kak-mozhno-bolshe-zhitelej-hristian-1711/

Editor’s Note:

If this doesn’t convince you that the Odd Couple Gang of Four (Obama, Boehner, Kerry, and McCain) are lying through their teeth, nothing will. THIS is what they want… for this is what the rebels will mete out to all the Christians and Alawis if they gain power. We need to press the konvertsy to the wall on this. They’ve supported the neocon warmongers… now, it’s time for them to put up or shut up. It’s the duty of all Orthodox Christians to stand by our confrères in the Orthosphere. Full stop. These demented children better get with the programme… or leave. Reflect well on who’re the worst offenders… Paffhausen, Webster, Reardon, Dreher, and Mattingly. Don’t forget Potapov… Langley’s obsequious running dog.

The USA crossed a “red line”, indeed… it supports such murderous rapine and destruction… it applauds the jihadists; it refuses to succour the victims. In fact, what sort of “strange weapons that we’ve never seen before” did Langley give the terrorists? Betcha that chemical munitions were amongst them…

BMD

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