Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
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Washington, SANA-The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria “ISIS” is reportedly turning Christian churches in Syria and Iraq into torture chambers and selling artifacts from the churches on the black market, The Washington Times said Thursday in a report by Douglas Ernest.
Back in July 2014, ISIS has set fire to a 1,800-year-old church in Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul.
The burning of the church is one of the series of destruction of Christian property in Mosul, which was taken by ISIS, along with other Iraqi territories.
“ISIS has a stated goal to wipe out Christianity,” Jay Sekulow, of the American Center for Law and Justice and the author of “Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can’t Ignore,” told Fox News.
Syria’s representative to the UN Bashar Ja’afari has noted earlier this month that Syria repeatedly reported the various acts committed by terrorist organizations – primarily ISIS and Jabhet al-Nusra – which include extracting and selling the petroleum which belongs to Syria and Iraq, stealing and trading in archeological artifacts, dismantling factories and transporting their machinery to Turkey, abduction and hostage-taking, and human trafficking of women and children.
“This is why they are crucifying Christians — including children — destroying churches and selling artifacts. The fact is, this group will stop at nothing to raise funds for its terrorist mission,” he added.
ISIS took over Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, in June, which was also home to a large Christian population. The terrorist organization promptly destroyed the tomb of Jonah.
The International Centre for the Study of Radicalization ranked Saudi Arabia the second among many countries in terms of sending terrorists to Syria.
The London-based Centre estimated the total number of foreign fighters in Syria as between 11,000 and 12,000.
In Sept. 2014, ISIS destroyed a 7th-century church and a historical mosque in Iraq’s Tikrit.
ISIS, also, destroyed the Armenian Genocide Memorial Church in Deir Ezzor, Syria—considered the Auschwitz of the Armenian Genocide.
“We had to go through an area where they had set up a checkpoint,” refugee Zaid Qreqosh Ishaq, 27, told The Associated Press July 22.
Members of the Islamic State group “asked us to get out of the car. We got out. They took … our things, our bags, our money, everything we had on us,” he added.
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