BEIRUT – ISIS reportedly leveled a church in a village in eastern Syria’s Tel Tamr region as the Assyrian Christians of the beleaguered area celebrated Easter.
“The Islamic State has blown up the Virgin Mary Church in the town of Tel Nasri at around 9:00 am Sunday morning, the day of Easter for Christians,” a statement issued by the activist Assyrian Network for Human Rights group said.
ISIS, which has stationed its fighters in the church, set off the explosives as the “joint forces” of Kurdish and local Assyrian fighters attempted to enter the town, which has been held by the Islamist fighters since March 7, the statement added.
“ISIS had planted a number of mines and explosives in the vicinity of the town to prevent entry to the ‘joint forces,’ leading to a number of deaths among their ranks as they tried to move into the town Sunday morning.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in turn, reported that a pillar of smoke had risen over Tel Nasri after an explosion was heard reverberating through the village.
The monitoring organization cited sources as saying that ISIS had destroyed parts of the church amid the continuing fighting between the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and allied Assyrian fighters on one hand and ISIS on the other.
The Observatory added that ISIS has mined parts of the villages and planted a number of explosive devices, slowing the progress of the YPG and Assyrian troops.
An Assyrian fighter told ARA News that the Tel Tamr region has been completely evacuated of civilians and turned into a military zone.
“Tel Nasri will be the key to cleanse the Assyrian villages of Khaboor (Tel Shamiram, Tel Maghas, Goran and other villages) from the dirt of those barbaric extremists,” Ninos Marqas said in an interview with the news outlet.
ARA added that the Kurdish-Assyrian “joint forces” of the area issued a statement following the bombing vowing that a campaign to retake ISIS-held areas of Tel Tamr “will be launched soon, taking revenge for our martyrs who fell by the machine guns of the terrorists.”
ISIS in late February swept into several villages in the Assyrian-populated area and kidnapped dozens of local residents whose fate continues to remain unknown, with the Islamist group releasing only a few of its victims in return for YPG-held ISIS prisoners.
The kidnapping comes amid back-and-forth fighting in the Hasakeh province that has seen Christian fighters join Kurds in their campaign to roll back ISIS in eastern Syria.
SEE ALSO: The US and Iran are closer in Iraq than people realize — and things are getting ugly
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Animated map of what Earth would look like if all the ice melted