The agreement between Damascus and Kurdish militias is not enough to stem the violence in the country. 21-year-old Eliah Simon Tekla shot dead in his car parked in front of his home. Since Assad's fall, over 70 Christians have been killed for their faith. Christian minister: ‘I see people's suffering... and I feel responsible for their pain’.

Damascus (AsiaNews) - At the same time that Damascus and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reach an agreement to stop the fighting and stem the violence in the north-east, integrating Kurdish military and civil institutions into the state, Christians continue to die.

Social media groups and activist movements are sharing a video clip showing the execution of a young man aged just 21, killed on the afternoon of 31 January inside his car by a jihadist commando in Muhradah, in the west of the country.

The victim's name was Eliah Simon Tekla, and he is only the latest in a long string of bloodshed and violence against the religious minority since the ousting of Bashar al-Assad and the rise to power of President Ahmed al-Sharaa and the militants of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (Ht).

In the video released by the NGO Assyro-chaldéens, l'histoire continue, the car can be seen parked at the side of the road and the victim opening the door to get out and head towards his home when, suddenly, another car pulls up alongside him. An armed man approaches the driver's side and fires several shots at Eliah, while a second assailant opens the rear door to make sure there are no other people in the car.

The attack lasts a few seconds, then the car drives away quickly, leaving the victim lying inside his car. According to some sources, the commando - linked to Islamic extremism - spotted a rosary on the windscreen of the car and, for this reason, opened fire and killed the person inside.

The latest killing – in reality a full-blown execution, as reported by activist groups – is only the latest in a long series of bloodshed and violence against Christians since the rise to power of the (former) jihadists of HTS and its leader al-Sharaa.

Al-Sharaa has promised to pacify the country and is negotiating with the United States to end sanctions, but he has not yet managed to stem the tide of internal violence characterised by conflict in Kurdish areas and targeted attacks against minorities, who are increasingly persecuted.

In the last year, at least 71 Christians have been killed by jihadists, but this figure refers only to confirmed victims, while the number of killings - according to local activist sources - could be much higher.

In addition to the murders, there have also been attacks on businesses and shops, kidnappings, and moral and physical persecution. Of these victims, 27 are linked to the attack on the Church of Saint-Élie in Damascus, while another 44 were killed separately in targeted attacks.

The escalation of violence is also confirmed by the recent Open Doors report, in which Syria rises 12 places to sixth in the World Watch List 2025, the NGO's annual report on the persecution of Christians around the world.

‘Over the past year, the situation in Syria for Christians has become increasingly serious,’ the authors emphasise. ‘Since the change of regime, widespread instability,’ the study continues, ‘has led to deadly clashes involving other religious minorities, such as the Druze and Alawites, while Christians remain caught in the crossfire.’

Women belonging to religious minorities, including Christians, are at risk of kidnapping, sexual harassment and rape; on the other hand, unemployed men have enormous difficulty finding work, while those who do have a job struggle to advance their careers.

The document concludes that the country ‘is currently experiencing the highest level of danger for Christians since the Islamic State (formerly ISIS) occupied a large part of the national territory.’

The violence has not even spared the metropolis of Aleppo in northern Syria, once the economic and commercial heart of the country.

As the parish priest of the Church of St Francis of Assisi, Fr Bahjat Karakach, writes, the people ‘are exhausted by war, bloodshed, repeated trauma and endless crises’. For Assyrian political analyst Namrood Shiba, the security situation in the north has reached a ‘critical stage’.

In an analysis published in Aina, the scholar recalls how ‘in both Iraq and Syria, Assyrians [Christians] have endured a recurring pattern of dispossession: villages destroyed or appropriated, churches and archaeological sites desecrated, community leaders threatened and families forced to flee under pressure from the armed forces’. In Syria, in particular, ‘they have suffered the same fate as their counterparts in Iraq’.

The destruction of Christian heritage, he warns, ‘is not simply a violation of minority rights; it constitutes an assault on the region's shared historical heritage’, amounting to ‘cultural cleansing, which is prohibited by international humanitarian law and UNESCO conventions’.

Hind Kabawat, the only female (and Christian) minister in the Damascus government, whose first months in power have been marked by sectarian violence and thousands of deaths, also spoke about the critical issues facing al-Sharaa's “new” Syria in a lengthy BBC report.

She herself is not immune to criticism and accusations from those who claim that she could have, or could, have done more for minorities. ‘I don't feel like a Christian or a woman when I do my job,’ she says. ‘I feel like I'm a Syrian citizen... The moment I start feeling like a minority or a woman, I will lose my legitimacy.’ ‘I see people's suffering... and I feel responsible for their pain,’ she admits, adding that the most critical moment in her work is when she feels she ‘does not have the resources to help people’.

• Syria
• Christians
• al-Sharaa
• Muslims
• violence
• religious freedom
• persecution
• Islam
• fundamentalism
• Kurds
• agreement