Raqqa (Agenzia Fides) – The militiamen of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a Sunni jiahdist formation acting on the scenario of the Syrian conflict, confiscated houses and land belonging to Christian families in the area of Ein al-Issa, the area in the province of Raqqa inhabited mainly by Armenian Christians on Sunday, June 1st. According to Kurdish sources consulted by Fides Agency, the owners of the property confiscated by the Islamists were forced to leave the area.
The city and the area of Raqqa, in northern Syria, have long been under the control of the jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, that have already turned the main Armenian church in the capital in an office for the management of Islamic Affairs and for the promotion of the sharia.
In the past ISIL also organized symbolic actions, such as the burning of Bibles and Christian books. The kidnapping of the Roman Jesuit Paolo Dall’Oglio, who has been missing in Raqqa since early last August, has been attributed to members of this faction. At the beginning of 2014 other armed groups clashed militarily with the militiamen of ISIL, also accused by independent sources of imposing an oppressive and violent regime to the entire population of the area. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 02/06/2014)