More than 120 churches in Syria damaged or destroyed by war

A Syrian flag raised over the damaged Saint Mary Roman Orthodox church at the mountain resort town of Zabadani in the Damascus countryside, Syria. The Qatar-based Syrian Network for Human Rights, a Syrian war monitor associated with the opposition said in its report that over 120 Christian places of worship have been damaged or destroyed by all sides in the country’s eight-year conflict. AP

A member of the six-person team from the Roj Mine Control Organisation -- a non-governmental organisation working in Kurdish-held areas -- uses a handheld detector to look for explosives in the heavily-damaged Armenian Catholic Church of the Martyrs in the city centre of the eastern Syrian city of Raqa. Two historic churches in Syria's Raqa will be declared free of explosives soon but the devastation in the city has left no one to celebrate in them. AFP

Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius Aphrem II, gives a sermon during mass at the heavily damaged Syriac Orthodox church of St Mary in Syria's eastern city of Deir Ezzor. AFP

The interior of the Mariamite Cathedral of Damascus, one of the oldest Greek Orthodox churches in the Syrian capital. The hole in its roof was caused by a mortar shell during a rebel bombardment in the eastern Bab Touma neighbourhood in February. AFP

Syrian Nabil Al Aash inspects the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint George in Arbin. AFP

Destruction surrounds the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Hour in the old city of Mosul, eight months after it was retaken by Iraqi government forces from the control of Islamic State group fighters. AFP

A man stands inside the apse of the 5th century basilica in Qalb Lozeh village in northwestern Syria. The ancient lime-stone cathedral is the architectural forerunner of France's famed Notre Dame cathedral. The abandoned church is widely hailed as Syria’s finest example of Byzantine-era architecture and is considered to have inspired Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals in Europe, including the Paris landmark. AFP

A cross that lies in the rubble of a destroyed church that was blown up by Islamic State militants in the deserted village of Tal Jazeera, northern Syria. The Qatar-based Syrian Network for Human Rights, a Syrian war monitor associated with the opposition said in its report, that over 120 Christian places of worship have been damaged or destroyed by all sides in the country’s eight-year conflict. AP

Zaya Youkhana, an Assyrian Christian stands on the rubble of a destroyed church that blown up by Islamic State militants in 2015 with Arabic that reads, "Worshippers of the cross," in the deserted village of Tal Jazeera, northern Syria. The Qatar-based Syrian Network for Human Rights, a Syrian war monitor associated with the opposition said in its report that over 120 Christian places of worship have been damaged or destroyed by all sides in the country’s eight-year conflict. AP

The altar of Judeida church is seen damaged by mortar shell, at the Christian village of Judeida, in Idlib province, Syria. The Qatar-based Syrian Network for Human Rights, a Syrian war monitor associated with the opposition said in its report, that over 120 Christian places of worship have been damaged or destroyed by all sides in the country’s eight-year conflict. AP

More than 120 churches and Christian places of worship have been destroyed since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, a war monitor has said.

A report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights, based in the UK and associated with the opposition, said the Syrian regime and militant groups such as ISIS hit Christian churches to intimidate and displace the minority.

While some of the attacks were deliberate, such as ISIS using bulldozers to destroy the ancient St Elian Monastery in Homs province in 2015, most were by front-line combat, shelling or rockets.

Christians made up about 10 per cent of Syria’s pre-war population of 23 million.

They coexisted with the Muslim majority and enjoyed freedom of worship under President Bashar Al Assad’s government.

Most have left for Europe over the past 20 years, with their flight significantly gathering speed since the start of the current conflict.

About half of all Syrians are now either internally displaced or have left the country.

The network, which collects statistics on the war, said government forces were responsible for 60 per cent of the 124 documented attacks since fighting erupted in March 2011.

The rest were blamed on ISIS militants, the Al Qaeda-linked umbrella group of militias Hayat Tahrir Al Sham and other factions of the armed opposition.

There was no immediate comment from the government, which rarely comments on reports from foreign organisations.

The report said ISIS was behind 10 attacks on Christian sites, five of which were in the northern city of Raqqa, once the extremists' de facto capital.

The group was known for displacing and killing Christians in areas it controlled. It also confiscated their properties.

Hardest hit was the northern province of Aleppo, with 34 attacks – 24 by rebels and six by the government.

The highest number of attacks by government forces, 27 out of 29, was in the central province of Homs.

The report also blamed Syrian government allies Russia and Iran, but did not specify how many of the attacks they had caused.

Syrian government forces and their allies unilaterally agreed to a truce on August 31 in opposition-controlled Idlib, where a "de-escalation zone" was brokered two years ago.

But air strikes hit a part of north-west Syria for the first time since a ceasefire was declared 10 days ago.