ACN asks for prayers for Syrian city of Aleppo as violence increases
Aid to the Church in Need-International (ACN) is calling for special prayers for residents of Aleppo, Syria.
The situation in the city is worsening due to renewed clashes, with casualties and many injured, said Maria Lozano, head of press for ACN late Tuesday.
Reuters reported that fighting in the northern Syrian city left at least four people dead and several others wounded. The Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are blaming each other for the violence.
“The clashes are the latest to break out in Aleppo as officials scramble to advance a deal to address Syria’s deepest remaining fracture by merging the U.S.-backed SDF with the central government,” said the wire service.
“The local Church and our project partners on the ground are urgently asking for prayers,” Lozano said, adding, “We ask you to keep the people of Aleppo in your prayers, especially all those affected by the violence, and to pray for peace and calm in the region.”
Reuters reported Tuesday that the SDF is “reluctant to give up autonomy it won during 14 years of war, which left it with control of Islamic State prisons and oil resources.”
“Failure to integrate the SDF into Syria’s army risks further violence and could potentially draw in Turkey, which has threatened an incursion against Kurdish fighters it views as terrorists,” the wire service said. “Three of those killed on Tuesday were civilians, while the fourth was an army soldier, state news agency SANA said.”
Syria’s defense ministry said in a statement that the SDF had continued its “escalation” by targeting army positions and residential areas in Aleppo, according to the Reuters report.
Christians keeping cautious watch
Syria has been in transition since the December 2024 fall of the al-Assad regime. Christians have been cautiously hoping for improvement in the governing of the country under interim president Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, who once was head of an Islamist group but who has claimed to renounce his jihadi past.
Most Syrians are Sunni Muslims. Alawites (or Alawis), Christians and Druze are also part of the country’s traditional religious mosaic. Kurds are the largest non-Arab ethnic group with most following Sunni Islam and living in the north of the country.
In late November 2024, the city of Aleppo fell into the hands of the Islamist HTS group. Christian communities did not report any violence. In December 2024, the leaders of all the Churches and ecclesial communities in Aleppo met with representatives of the armed groups that controlled the city.
On December 31, 2024, al-Sharaa met in Damascus with representatives of the Christian communities in Syria. The Islamist leader tried to reassure them that the new Syria would be inclusive. Following the meeting, Cardinal Mario Zenari, Apostolic Nuncio to Syria, expressed cautious optimism regarding the new leader’s assurances.
Yohanna X, Greek-Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, also signaled his willingness to cooperate with the new authorities. “We extend our hand to work with you to build the new Syria, and we are waiting for Mr. Al-Sharaa and his new administration to stretch out their hand to us in turn,” he stated on New Year’s Day 2025.
But there have been several disturbing incidents.
In December 2024, unidentified gunmen opened fire at a Greek Orthodox church in Hama. Also that month, non-Syrian HTS elements set fire to a Christmas tree erected in a public place in Hama. When residents tried to stop the act of vandalism, the HTS militiamen fired warning shots to keep them away. They justified their action by saying that the tree was a symbol of polytheism. A similar incident was reported in Aleppo, where an HTS official destroyed a Christmas tree in a Christian neighborhood.
In January 2025, the Institute for the Study of War reported that the Islamic State group was making a comeback in Syria after regrouping for several years. IS has historically exploited security vacuums created by changes in international counterterrorism policies in Syria and Africa.
On March 10, 2025, Syria’s new regime ended a military operation against Assadist forces. The fighting had started when Assad loyalists attacked a Syrian security patrol. What followed was one of the bloodiest single conflicts in Syria in a decade. Nearly a thousand civilians were killed, including women and children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Most of the civilians killed by government forces were Alawites, but some Sunnis and Christians were among the dead. The clashes were concentrated along Syria’s Mediterranean coast, starting in Jableh and spreading through Latakia governorate to Tartus, Hama and Homs.
Also in March 2025, three Syrian Christian patriarchs signed a joint appeal to stop the “horrible massacres” by jihadist militias against the Alawite minority. Greek Orthodox Patriarch Yohanna X, Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Youssef I Absi and Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Mar Ignatius Aphrem II denounced an “escalation of violence that has led to attacks against innocent civilians, including women and children.”
In June 2025, an explosion at the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Elias in Damascus killed at least 20 persons and injured more than 50.
–John Burger
