Christians Under Threat After Syria’s Second City Falls Into Islamist Hands, by Hélène de Lauzun

Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, has been captured by a jihadist group as part of its offensive against the government of Bashar al-Assad. The regime lost control of the territory—for the first time since the start of the civil war in 2011—on Sunday, December 1st. This prompted fears of a new refugee crisis, while Syria’s Christians are once again likely to be the main target of the Islamist troops.

The civil war in Syria has brought several distinct forces into direct conflict: the government army, the Kurds, Daesh (a.k.a ISIS/ISIL), and a conglomerate of so-called rebel forces from the jihadist movement. One of the latter groups, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an offshoot of Al-Qaeda, is responsible for the capture of Aleppo. …

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