Aleppo was under severe bombardment in early July – the city appeared to be on the brink of falling as the situation rapidly deteriorated. On 15 June, 150 people were injured in fighting, while ten people were killed, most of them children.
Two of Aleppo’s large minority of Armenian Christians were killed in a mortar explosion on 20 June. One of the men, a visiting pastor, had arrived from Armenia only two days earlier.
‘Jesus is Lord’
There were fresh Islamic State (IS) attacks in the north-eastern city of Hassake and the northern city of Kobane on 25 June. In Hassake, three-quarters of the population have fled. In Kobane, local Christians said: ‘The attackers went from house to house killing civilians, men, women and children.’ One young man, 19-year-old Shigho, was executed for having left Islam to become a Christian. Believers are in hiding in the city, but contacting Christians outside. They said: ‘Don’t worry about us, even if they were to cut our heads off ten times we would still say that Jesus is Lord.’ A piece of good news was the release by IS of three elderly Christians kidnapped from the Khabur river area. Two elderly women were released on 25 May, and 70-year-old Francois Sawa was released on 16 June. However, 227 Khabur river Christians remain hostage to IS.
