News - Middle East: A rights advocacy organization says Christians have been threatened by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militant group to evacuate the southwestern Syrian town of Maaloula, in what has been decried as an act of ethnic cleansing.

“Syrian Christians in the ancient Christian town of Maaloula, Syria, are being threatened to leave the town by the AlQaeda/ISIS terrorists that have taken over Syria,” the Iraqi Christian Foundation said in a post on X on Sunday.

“An ethnic cleansing is happening in this ancient Christian town where Aramaic is still spoken. Pray for the Christians of Syria,” the rights organization added.

The mission of the Iraqi Christian Foundation is to advocate for the human, legal, and political rights of Iraqi Christians and other Christians across the West Asia region.

The organization also provides humanitarian aid to Iraqi and Syrian Christian genocide victims.

Other rights activists earlier warned about the lack of Internet access or communication and the unfolding of a massacre in Maaloula, the last town in Syria where Aramaic — Jesus Christ's language — is still spoken.

The HTS administration, which led the onslaught that toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government earlier this month, has repeatedly claimed to respect the beliefs and rights of all sects and religions in Syria.

Tens of thousands took to the streets in Latakia, Tartus, Homs, Hama, and Qardaha in condemnation of the militants’ desecration of an Alawite shrine in Aleppo last week, but the HTS violently attacked them, leading to deadly confrontations. 

The HTS is among the militant organizations that have taken on Syria over the past dozen years with massively deadly and devastating effects on the country’s people.

Since March 2011, Syria has been gripped by a campaign of militancy and destruction sponsored by the US and its allies.

Press TV