BEIRUT-
President Bashar Assad on Sunday toured a historic Christian village his forces recently captured from rebels, state media said, as the country’s Greek Orthodox Patriarch vowed that Christians in the war-ravaged country “will not submit and yield” to extremists.
Syrian state TV and the country’s official SANA news agency said Assad was in Maaloula, inspecting the damage done in recent fighting to its monasteries and churches.
The rebels, including fighters from the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front, took Maaloula several times late last year. Their last attempt to capture and hold on to the ancient Christian hamlet came in mid-December. Government troops swept through the village on Monday sending rebel fighters fleeing to nearby hills.
Maaloula is located some 40 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Damascus and is home to a large Christian population. The army’s triumph in the village was an important symbolic prize for the government in its quest to be seen as protector of religious minorities, including Syria’s Christians, who have largely supported the Assad family’s decades of rule.