Jihadists rape, stone Christian woman to death in Syria
Christian and human rights groups reported over the last week that the 60-year-old Suzan Der Kirkour was found dead outside of her village, al-Yaqoubiyeh.
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALAn Islamist Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra fighter talks on a walkie-talkie while carrying his weapon on Al-Khazan frontline of Khan Sheikhoun, northern Idlib(photo credit: REUTERS)
Islamic terrorists from the Jihadist organization Jabhat al-Nusra raped and stoned to death an Armenian in the Syrian province of Idlib.Christian and human rights groups reported over the last week that Suzan Der Kirkour, 60, was found dead outside of the village of al-Yaqoubiyeh.According to the website of International Christian Concern (ICC), “An autopsy revealed that Suzan was tortured and repeatedly raped over an estimated period of nine hours. She was then stoned to death.”The French Christian humanitarian organization SOS Chrétien’s d’Orient, wrote that “cruel was her ordeal. The reality is just as much… (a) virgin at 60, she died under the repeated assaults of the jihadists of al-Nusra.”“The autopsy reveals that Suzan had been subjected to repeated rape since the afternoon of Monday (July 8) until early Tuesday morning, only hours before her discovery. As a martyr, she is joined in heaven by thousands of Christian brothers, who died in the arena of barbarism,” SOS Chrétien’s d’Orient added.SOS Chrétiens d’Orient describes itself as a non-political NGO that works “in the heart of the secured areas of the Middle East. It’s young and dynamic members, work on a 24/7 basis the field supporting the Christians of the East, whether Orthodox or Catholic, providing concrete and humanitarian material aid.”ICC wrote that Der Kirkour worked as a gardener and Arabic teacher. After her retirement, she was a volunteer at the Kneye Village Church “where she helped youth achieve their baccalaureate.”Parishioners of Kneye Village Church discovered her body.Claire Evans, ICC’s Regional Manager for the Middle East, said, “Suzan was a pillar in her community. Her untimely death and the manner of her murder is horrifying. It further deepens the shadow which has fallen upon any Christians who have remained in Syria throughout nearly a decade of violent conflict. Rule of law, justice, and accountability must be restored in Syria. Otherwise, we are witness to the slow, but fierce, extermination of Christianity from a country where it has existed for over 2,000 years.”The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights wrote on its website that it “learned that the body of a citizen woman in her fifties was found on Tuesday, the 9th of July, 2019, and it was revealed later that she is a Christian woman... Her body was found with marks of torture on it and, according to forensic medicine, the woman had been tortured for about nine hours before she was stoned to death by unidentified persons.”
ICC noted that “It is widely reported among locals that Suzan’s attackers were members of the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group, which maintains a strong presence in the Idlib governorate. Al-Yaqoubiyeh is a Christian village, but most of the women have left because of violent aggression from the terrorists. Some estimate that only 18 women, including Suzan, were living in the village.”
