Jihadists set church crosses and statues ablaze in north Syria

Jihadists linked to al-Qaeda reportedly set fire to statues and crosses inside churches in northern Syria and destroyed a cross on a church clock tower.

The Syria Observatory for Human Rights said that the fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) entered the Greek Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Annunciation in the northern city of Raqa and torched the religious furnishings inside.

According to News24, the jihadists did the same at the Armenian Catholic Church of the Martyrs, and also destroyed a cross atop its clock tower, replacing it with the ISIL flag.

The Observatory denounced the attacks as being against the freedom of religion, which are an assault on the Syrian revolution.

In January, the Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, Sarah Leah Whitson had said that the destruction of religious sites is furthering sectarian fears and compounding the tragedies of the country adding that Syria will lose its rich cultural and religious diversity if armed groups do not respect places of worship, the report added.