Al-Qaeda closes in on Syrian Christian stronghold
By Ruth Sherlock, Beirut
Al-Qaeda's branch in Syria is attacking one of the
country's remaining Christian strongholds, as it presses its offensive against
the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Jabhat al-Nusra fighters, who have pledged allegiance
to al-Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, are encircling the historic Christian
town of Mhardeh and bombarding it with artillery, residents have told The
Telegraph.
"There is shelling night and day. We have no
electricity. There is only one road out and it is dangerous to use it
now," said Josef, a civil engineer in Mhardeh, who spoke using a pseudonym
for fear of reprisals if the jihadists enter the town.
For centuries Mhardeh was a safe haven for Syria's
Greek Orthodox Christians, recently housing a population of approximately
23,000.
The spires of five carefully maintained churches are
dotted on the town's horizon, and its population is proud of the city's
heritage as the birthplace of Ignatius IV Hazim, the late Patriarch of Antioch.
Now however, Mhardeh – known locally as the "city
of the sun" – has been plunged into the centre of the Syrian civil war.
The threat to the town is a stark reminder that
jihadist bloodletting is not confined to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(Isil), the group that has declared an Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and made
itself the focus of world attention.
Located just 20 miles north of the central city of
Hama, on a road that leads to the coastal heartland of President Bashar
al-Assad's Alawite sect, and close to one of the Syrian government's largest
military bases, Mhardeh had long been a marked city.
For the rebels to advance against the regime in
central Syria, cut off the government's supply lines to their front lines in
the northern city of Aleppo, and eventually reach the Alawites in Latakia, they
need to control Mhardeh.
In August 2012, Jabhat al-Nusra took the credit for a
suicide bomb that ripped through the town, killing three civilians and one
security officer.
In a statement posted on a jihadist forum and
translated by the SITE Intelligence group, al-Nusra made Mhardeh a focus of its
offensive.
Government forces then attacked surrounding Sunni,
opposition-held villages, blitzing the territory with shell fire and barrel
bombs. Late last year, as opposition groups began fighting among themselves,
and then against the emerging Isil, al-Nusra's grasp on Hama province was
weakened.
But last month, as attention was focused on Isil
seizing swathes of northern Iraq and consolidating its control over its
territories in northern Syria, al-Nusra and local allied rebel groups launched
a renewed and concerted offensive in Hama region.
Fighting on several fronts, Assad had become reliant
on local vigilantes and Shia militia groups trained and funded by Iran.
The regime's manpower was then weakened when thousands
of the Shia militias moved across the border to fight Isil in Iraq after the
group took control of the country's second city Mosul.
Jabhat al-Nusra and it's allies seized on the moment
to press south in Hama, taking the town of Halfaya, less than one mile east of
Mhardeh and other Sunni villages in the area.
Joseph said: "We are besieged on all sides,
except for one road, but it's difficult to go on it as Nusra has the capability
to hit it. The Nusra base is less than 500 meters away and that's where they
are hitting us from."
The jihadists tried to take the power station close to
Mhardeh, a huge plant that reportedly supplies power across the province,
including to Hama city.
Proregime troops repelled the attack, but the part of
the power station was damaged, plunging Mhardeh into darkness.
"We have had no electricity for 14 days
now," said Joseph. "We are surviving on what vegetable supplies we
have as the meat in the fridges is rotting.
Mobile phone lines are cut also."
In the last week the shelling attacks have been
"relentless", said Joseph. "We've had more than 65 shells in one
night."
On Friday locals posted pictures of a Shaza Bitar, a
10-year-old girl, who they said had been killed in an artillery strike.
Abu Adnan al-Hamwi, a Syrian opposition activist and
resident of Hama, who also spoke using a pseudonym, said the jihadists were
aiming at Mhardeh not because the population is Christian, but rather because
the group needs to seize a major government military complex in the area.
"This army base is the place from which the
regime shells all the towns in northern Hama countryside," he said.
"Thousands of people have died in the last three years because of the
rockets fired from this base."
In a recent statement Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the
leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, said his group did not intend to persecute Christian
residents of Mhardeh specifically.
Jabhat al-Nusra has generally shown itself to be less
extreme than its jihadist counterpart Isil, whose practices of regular
beheadings and crucifixions have been deemed too abhorrent even for Ayman
al-Zawahiri, who publicly denounced the group earlier this year.
When al-Nusra captured and then released a group of
nuns from the Christian town of Maaloula, the sisters reported that they had
been "treated well".
Nonetheless, the prospect of a Nusra takeover remain's
terrifying for Mhardeh's residents.
Christian villages that have fallen into the hands of
Nusra and its allies, such as Kasab in the north of the country, have seen
churches desecrated and religious monuments destroyed.
Under the jihadists' hardline rule, Christians are
formally allowed to remain if they convert to Islam or pay the
"Jeziya", a religious tax that is supposed to guarantee protection.
But the reality – especially at the hands of more
hardline foreign jihadists who have come to Syria to wage "holy
jihad" – is more violent.
In practice, residents of Christian communities
overrun by Nusra have invariably fled their homes, and hold out little prospect
of returning.
In Mhardeh, the town's men have taken up arms and
joined the National
Defence Force, a progovernment militia.
"Nobody is sleeping. We stay awake at night
guarding the city," said Josef, whose two sons are fighting.
"I ask the public in the West: if Nusra invade
what kind of penalties will we be obliged to pay if we live under them? Will we
survive?"
Tens of thousands of Syrian Christians, who made up
about 10 per cent of Syria's pre-war population of 23 million, have left for
Europe since the start of conflict in 2011.
Hama province was said to be home to the largest
agglomeration of Greek Orthodox Christians in Syria.
However, in addition to Mhardeh, Christian residents
Suqalbiyeh and other Christian settlements in the province are also being
threatened, Greek Orthodox Patriarchal Assistant Bishop Luca al- Khouri told
The Telegraph.
Aware that if they left and Nusra took control, they
would be unlikely to return, residents in Mhardeh have posted defiant messages
on their
Twitter and Facebook pages, saying they "will fight to the
death".
Priests in the local churches have been urging
residents not to escape, preaching that God is on their side, residents said.
"We cannot lose: we only have one option, to
achieve victory," said Joseph.
"Because if we leave we will never be able to
come back."
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