SYRIA: Church reopens in Assyrian village of Tel Balua’a in Tel Tamr countryside

TEL TAMR, Syria — After being closed for more than five years because of terrorist attacks by the Islamic State (ISIS) against the villages of Tel Tamr, in the predominantly Christian Khabur Valley, the Church of St. Kyriakos and St. Shimon was reopened on Saturday in the Assyrian village of Tel Balua’a.

According to sources from Tel Balua’a, ISIS set fire to the church, including the Bible, and destroyed parts of the church, but work was under way to restore it.

One of the residents of the village stated that none of the original residents were left except for her and her husband and one other man. The rest of the residents had left the village due to the ongoing ISIS attacks on Assyrian villages.

In response to calls for the church to be reopened, the municipality of Tel Tamr sent water tanks to wash the church. Displaced people from Rish Ayno (Ras al-Ayn) and the remaining residents of the village expressed their willingness to participate in the cleaning operations.

This is not the first church to be reopened in the area after the defeat of ISIS and several other villages are seeking to reopen churches that have survived ISIS attacks.