November 13, 2019 (Morning Star News) – Islamic State (IS) militants claimed responsibility for killing an Armenian Catholic priest and his father on Monday (Nov. 11) in eastern Syria, where they had traveled from their home in a northeastern town hit by Turkish airstrikes and terrorist bombs.
In the wake of a Turkish military operation into Syrian territory that hit civilian border areas in the priest’s base in Qamishli, the Rev. Hovsep Bedoyan and his father, Abraham Bedoyan, were killed by gunmen in Deir ez-Zor, according to media reports. The priest made regular pastoral visits to Deir ez-Zor, an IS stronghold in eastern Syria until Syrian Democratic Forces retook it over the past two years, and he was overseeing the reconstruction of a church building in the city.
He and his father were in a car with two others, including deacon Fadi Sano, who was wounded by the gunfire, according to reports. They were attacked in their vehicle as they were nearing the Armenian Catholic church in Deir ez-Zour.
On the same day in Qamishli, bombings near a Chaldean church killed at least six civilians. IS also claimed responsibility for those attacks.
The killings come at a time when Christians in Syria’s border areas with Turkey are caught in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s military offensive to drive Kurds from an area roughly 20 miles into Syrian…
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