CHURCH / Syria: Eyewitness describes killing of Syrian Christians

Eyewitness describes murder of Catholics in Syrian Christian village

CWN - September 13, 2013

A woman who witnessed the murder of three Catholics in Ma'loula, a Syrian Christian village attacked by jihadist Syrian rebels, provided the Fides news agency with details of their deaths.
Patriarch Grégoire III (Loutfi) Laham, the head of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, presided at their funeral liturgy in Damascus.
The rebels entered "many homes of civilians on September 7, destroying and terrorizing people, damaging all the sacred images," Fides reported. "In one house there were three Greek Catholic men: Mikhael Taalab, his cousin Antoun Taalab, Sarkis el Zakhm, Mikhael's grandson, and the woman A., their relative, who says what happened."
"The Islamists warned everyone present to convert to Islam," the report continued. "Sarkis answered clearly, 'I am a Christian, and if you want to kill me because I am a Christian, do it.' The young man together with the other two was killed cold bloodedly. The woman was injured and was saved by a miracle, later taken to [a] hospital in Damascus."

Additional sources for this story
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• Maalula, land of martyrs: death in odium fidei of the young Sarkis (Fides)
• Witnesses report desecrations, forced conversion to Islam in Syrian Christian village (CWN, 9/12)