Posted on 09/07/2013 6:50:13 PM PDT by annalex
On September 5th the Syrian opposition armed groups attempted to capture Maalula, the town populated mostly by Christians, located 60 km from Damascus. The correspondent of "Voice of Russia" got in touch with the eyewitness to the events, which was in town during the assault, Vail Malas.
Maalula town is best known for the fact that its inhabitants speak a dialect of Aramaic, which is close to the language of Jesus Christ. Government troops repulsed the attack, but the militants related to "Dzhabhat en-Nusra" and "Al-Qaeda", managed to gain a foothold on the surrounding heights, from where they continue to shell the town.
That's what told the "Voice of Russia" an eyewitness, who was at the time of the assault in the city, activistWael Malas:
- You were in town Maalula during the assault. What happened there?
- I was visiting relatives in Maalula and met with monks and nuns, when terrorists, "al-Nusra Dzhabhat" and other armed groups, stormed into the city,. They seized the oldest world's first female monastery of Saints Thecla, the Monastery of the Holy Prophet Elijah and a tourist hotel. After that, they began to destroy buildings and desecrate the shrine. Most of the monks and nuns were expelled, some were captured. Several priests killed. All crosses, chandeliers and other church utensils, whatever had any material value was stolen. The rest was burned.
Now these two monasteries are occupied by snipers militants because they are at higher elevations. In addition, we have noticed that the militants had a strange weapon that I had never seen before, I can not even describe it.
The Syrian General: "Sirens and shelters are ready for a possible attack" [in Russian]
It all started when a suicide car bomb drew up and exploded and killed a large number of soldiers in the army checkpoint in the city. After that, several dozen vehicles mounted with weapons entered the city. Foot militants walked alongside. The total number of militants was in the thousands, I could not count them, it seemed that all the forces were transferred to Maalula. When they entered the city, they shouted that will cleanse the earth of sinners. Their goal was to kill as many Christian inhabitants and blow up the maximum number of churches.
I would like to note that the media do not tell the one terrible fact: in the militants started checking people's passports and once saw a man's Christian name, he immediately shot him in the head and walked to the next resident.
Expert: extremists want to dispel the Christians around the world [in Russian]
Patriarch Kirill cautioned against infringing on the rights of Christians [in Russian]
I managed to escape only because during the attack, we were not far off the main highway in the city, where there was a bus, and the driver collected the maximum number of people and left. I was one of the lucky ones. We dressed in the most simple clothes; children and women were with us. A few hours later we learned that the highway was also captured.
All materials on "Syria: be there or not be a war?" read here [in Russian]
Putin needs to order Spetsnaz to go in there and root out the Islamic scum.
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