Gemayel Urges World to Stop 'Assault' on Historic Syria Christian Village
Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel on Thursday held a series of contacts with the U.N. and world powers in a bid to stop attacks by Qaida-linked rebels on the ancient Syrian Christian village of Maaloula, his office said.
In this regard, Gemayel held phone talks with U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman, U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly and the ambassadors of the Vatican, France, Britain and the United States.
Gemayel urged them to “ask their governments to take quick measures to stop the assault on Maaloula and pull the gunmen out of the town and places of worship immediately.”
He called on the envoys to inform their countries' leaders – who gathered Thursday in Saint Petersburg for the G20 summit -- of the “enormity of the attack,” warning that “the onslaught might lead to pushing the events in Syria down an increasingly sectarian and seditious course, which would affect the firmness of the international community's stance on the Syrian crisis.”
Gemayel's office noted that “all these international officials responded to president Gemayel's call,” revealing that “Arab and international stances over this attack are expected to be issued in light of the contacts that got underway between the European capitals, the Vatican and New York.”
It also announced that it had been receiving all day “distress calls from the residents of the town of Maaloula, who called for a prompt action to rescue the historic town, its residents and its spiritual heritage.”
Syrian government troops battled al-Qaida-linked rebels over Maaloula for the second day Thursday.
Residents of the village said the militants entered the village late Wednesday. Rami Abdul Rahman, the director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the fighters included members of the of al-Qaida affiliated al-Nusra Front.
Despite heavy army presence in the village, Abdul Rahman said the rebels patrolled its streets on foot and in vehicles, briefly surrounding a church and a mosque before leaving early Thursday.
The rebels launched the assault on Maaloula -- which is on a UNESCO list of tentative world heritage sites -- on Wednesday after a Nusra fighter blew himself up at a regime checkpoint at the entrance to the mountain village.
The village, about 60 kilometers northeast of Damascus, is home to 3,300 residents, some of whom still speak a version of Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus Christ that only small, scattered communities around the world still use today.
It is full of troglodyte caves dating back to the first centuries of Christianity, and also houses the Mar Takla Greek Orthodox monastery.
Heavy clashes between President Bashar Assad's troops and al-Nusra Front fighters persisted in surrounding mountains Thursday, according to the Observatory, which collects information from a network of anti-regime activists.
Speaking by phone from a convent in the village, a nun told The Associated Press that the rebels left a mountaintop hotel Thursday after capturing it a day earlier. The nun said the frightened residents expect the Islamist militants to return to the Safir hotel and resume shelling of the community below.
"It's their home now," the nun said. She said some 100 people from the village took refuge in the convent. The 27 orphans who live there had been taken to nearby caves overnight "so they were not scared."
The nun spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
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