Horror: ISIS kills Catholic priest in Syria — UPDATED

Last updated on: November 12, 2019 at 10:18 am by Deacon Greg Kandra

Horror: ISIS kills Catholic priest in Syria — UPDATED 2019-11-12T10:18:06-05:00 Deacon Greg Kandra

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From Radio Free Europe:

Unknown gunmen have shot dead an Armenian Catholic priest and his father as they were traveling in a car in northeastern Syria.

Father Hovsep Petoian, the head of the Armenian Catholic community in the the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli near the border with Turkey, and his father, Abraham Petoian, were heading to the province of Deir Al-Zor when they came under attack on November 11, Deacon Hakob Parsamian told RFE/RL.

The two men were due to oversee the restoration of a church in Deir Al-Zor, the Kurdish news agency Hawar reported.

A third man, a deacon from the town of Al-Hasakeh, was reportedly wounded in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.

More than 100,000 ethnic Armenians lived in Syria, mainly in the northwestern province of Aleppo, prior to the Syrian civil war. Many of them have fled, including thousands to Armenia.

The Middle East website Rudaw reports:

The Islamic State group (ISIS) on Monday claimed responsibility for the gunning down of an Armenian Catholic Priest and his father in the northeast Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor, just hours after the shooting took place.

ISIS claimed Monday afternoon via its Telegram channels to have killed “two Christian priests” in al-Zir village, in the al-Busayrah sub-district of Deir ez-Zor.

Syrian state TV SANA reported the “martyrdom” of Priest Housib Abraham Bidoyan, head of the Armenian Catholic Church in Qamishli, and his father. The two were killed by unidentified gunmen, SANA said, as they travelled southbound from Hasaka province to Deir ez-Zor.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord…

UPDATE: Earlier accounts said that the two victims were both priests, but other reports have clarified that it was a “Father” and his biological “father.”

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