Fighting between Syrian government forces and the al-Qaeda faction Jabhat al-Nusra continues today in the ancient Christian town of Maaloula, with neither side willing to give ground and the remaining Christian population still trapped in a convent.
Nusra forces began contesting the village last week, taking a hill-top hotel and using it as a base from which to shell the surrounding area. The small military post in the town fell over the weekend, and has been burned.
Unconfirmed reports emerged from survivors of the Nusra fighters forcing villagers to convert to their brand of Islam, and there have also been claims of ancient churches being damaged.
Al-Nusra says now that it will agree to withdraw from the village if the locals agree not to allow the Syrian government to return either, though it seems that in practice that’s not a workable solution for either side, and the Christian population remains stuck in the middle.
THis sis Syrian propaganda. This village was fighting for Bashar Assad who has murdered 100,000
…[munch, munch, crunch, crunch] [ sounds of eating human flesh and bones ]…,
"…. hrmm, grrk, we will, grrk, mrrh, not eat more christian children grk grk as long as they don't support the assad grrk grrk hrrm hrrm"
So the foreign mercenaries want to dictate the national army of Syria where it should enter?
I did not realize how little support the FSA had until Kerry started talking about them recently. He said that there are less than 100.000 rebels. That is less than 00.5% of the Syrian population. I would think that a popular movement would have at least 20.0% of the population. Al Qaeda supposedly is about ~7000 yet the are taking most of the credit for fighting. Clearly not a popular revolt.