IS kills priests in Syria as Turkish-backed fighters express IS sympathies
Two Armenian Catholic priests are killed by the Islamic State near Hasakah and pro-Turkish Syrian fighters are reported to have hoisted the Islamic State flag in Ras al-Ain.
HASAKAH, Syria — Residents of Qamishli took part Nov. 12 in the funeral procession of the Rev. Hovsep Petoian and his father, the Rev. Hanna Petoian, of the Armenian Catholic Mar Youssef Church in the city of Qamishli near the border with Turkey.
The priests were both shot dead Nov. 11 by the Islamic State (IS) as they headed from Hasakah to Deir ez-Zor to oversee the restoration of a church.
The Armenian National Committee of America said it looked to President Donald Trump to publicly press Turkish President Erdogan for an answer regarding the IS murder of two Catholic Armenian priests in a region of Syria that has fallen increasingly under the control of Ankara’s allies.
Mary Hagop, a woman in her 70s, fled Tell Abyad to Qamishli with her family last month after the Turkish army and the opposition National Army occupied her city during Operation Spring of Peace carried out by Ankara against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US ally in the war against IS.
