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President Assad visits Christian town of Maaloula

World News

20-04-2014 | 05:59

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President Assad visits Christian town of Maaloula

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The Syrian state television reported on Sunday that Syrian President Bashar Assad on Easter Sunday visited the ancient Christian town of Maaloula, which his troops recently recaptured from rebels.

It added that Assad had inspected a monastery damaged in recent fighting.

Maaloula, 5 km from the main road linking Damascus to Homs, has changed hands at least four times in attacks and counter-assaults by rebels and government forces.

In the last few weeks, Assad's forces have recaptured strategic towns along the Lebanese border, including Yabroud and Rankous near Maaloula.

Maaloula's churches and monasteries attracted both Christian and Muslim pilgrims before the conflict. Some of its inhabitants still speak Aramaic, the language of Christ, and the monastery of Mar Thecla has a reputation among believers for miraculous cures.

Syria's Christian community, about 10 percent of the population, is wary of the rising power of Islamist groups within the rebel movement.

Only a small percentage of Christians have taken up arms in the civil war that broadly pits minorities, in particular Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, against the Sunni Muslim majority.

LBCI/REUTERS

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