Insurgents from the self-styled ISIS blew up an 80-year-old church in Syria’s northeastern province of Hassaka on Easter Sunday, Syrian state news agency SANA said.
SANA, said the militants had planted explosives inside the Church of the Virgin Mary in Tel Nasri, an Assyrian village in an area where Christian and Kurdish militia have been battling ISIS.
The bombing of the church took place on Sunday in the province of Hasakah and reportedly led to the destruction of major parts of the site.
The village of Tel Nasri is near Daesh battlefront with Kurdish fighters who have managed to slow the terrorists’ advance through parts of Syria and Iraq.
According to Assyrian media reports, the Sunday explosion came after Kurdish forces attempted to reenter Tel Nasri.
Following the attack, the Sweden-based Assyrian Network for Human Rights issued a statement, condemning the blast as “a war crime according to international humanitarian law - which prohibits the targeting of religious facilities during the armed conflicts for any reason.”
Daesh has also destroyed numerous ancient sites belonging to Assyrians in Iraq.
Last month, Daesh reduced to piles of rubble the Mar Behnam monastery built by Iraqi Assyrians near the northern city of Mosul as many as 1,600 years ago.
In February Daesh attacked a number of Assyrian villages along the Khabur River in Hasakah Province, including Tel Nasri. They also kidnapped hundreds of Assyrian Christians.
“We will fight them (Daesh). They will be expelled from our villages,” said an Assyrian fighter in Syria, adding that they will treat Daesh militants as enemies of humanity.
Daesh controls parts of Syria and Iraq, and have been carrying out horrific acts of violence such as public decapitations and crucifixions against all ethnic and religious communities.