Jihadi ethnic cleansing against Christians underway in central Syria?

Walid Phares

According to several security and NGOs reports, an ISIS Jihad blitz has taken the town of "al Qaryatein" south East of Homs (see map), and seized hundreds of its inhabitants, mostly women and children from the Christian Syriac community. The reports fear another blitz offensive launched from al Qaryatein in the direction of Sadad another Christian Syriac town east of interstate M 5 linking Damascus to Homs. These two Christian towns are inhabited by an Aramaic speaking population part of Syria's Christian population of close to two million. Ethnic cleansing at the hands of the ISIS Caliphate is feared by NGOs who are calling on the EU and the US to take immediate actions to stop ISIS and free the hundreds of Syriac civilians now in the hands of the Jihadists. In Brussels, the representatives of the Syriac Military Council have urged the West to supply them with weapons and trainers to resist the advances of ISIS into their villages in north and central Syria.

Map provided by NGOs observers in Syria