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Christian militia in Syria defends ancient settlements against Isis

Christian fighters of Sutoro (the Syriac Security Office) guard a checkpoint in Tel Tamr. Photograph: Reuters

Fighters try to protect last pockets of Assyrian Christians after Islamic State kills dozens, captures 300 hostages and forces thousands into exile

A few hundred Christian militants are at the vanguard of a fight in far north-eastern Syria to preserve some of the last major Christian pockets within the swath of central Arabia conquered by Islamic State.

For the past week, about 450 militiamen have tried to defend four Assyrian Christian villages among a cluster of 30 ancient settlements in Hassakeh province that had survived more than two millennia of war, invasion and insurrection.

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Pope denounces ‘intolerable brutality’ in Iraq, Syria

Pope Francis addresses worshippers at the Vatican, on March 1, 2015Pope Francis on Sunday denounced the “intolerable brutality” being inflicted on Christians and other minorities in Iraq and Syria by Islamic State group militants. “Unfortunately the tragic news just keeps coming from Iraq and Syria,” the pontiff said after his weekly prayer in St Peter’s Square, without specifically naming IS. Last week, IS kidnapped 220 Assyrians in the Tal Tamr area of Syria where the extremist Islamist group has seized control of 10 Christian villages, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.


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Islamic State in Syria abducts at least 90 from Christian villages: monitor

Islamic State group militants hang the Islamic Jihad flag on a pole at the top of an ancient military fort after they cut a road through the Syrian-Iraqi border between the Iraqi Nineveh province and the Syrian town of Al-Hasakah on June 11, 2014By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) – Islamic State militants have abducted at least 90 people from Assyrian Christian villages in northeastern Syria, a monitoring group that tracks violence in Syria said on Tuesday. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants carried out dawn raids on rural villages inhabited by the ancient Christian minority west of Hasaka, a city mainly held by the Kurds. Syrian Kurdish militia launched two offensives against the militants in northeast Syria on Sunday, helped by U.S.-led air strikes and Iraqi peshmerga. This part of Syria is strategically important in the fight against Islamic State because it borders territory controlled by the group in Iraq, where it last year committed atrocities against the minority religious Yazidi community.


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Turkish troops enter Syria to rescue soldiers guarding tomb

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad condemns operation to relieve garrison at Suleyman Shah’s tomb and relocate remains as ‘flagrant aggression’

Turkey has staged its first open military operation in Syria, dispatching hundreds of ground troops, tanks, aircraft and drones to extract 38 soldiers guarding a historical Ottoman tomb besieged by Islamic State (Isis) militants.

Related: The relocation of Suleyman Shah: the way forward in the Middle East? | Andrew Brown

Related: Inside the Islamic State ‘capital’: no end in sight to its grim rule

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Aleppo ceasefire plan in danger as Assad’s troops fail to close off city

Rebel fighters in Aleppo claim they have reversed the advance by government troops. Photograph: Fadi Al-Halabi/AFP/Getty Images

Rebels claim they have repelled government offensive and captured scores of soldiers, putting UN-brokered truce in doubt

A Syrian regime push to encircle Aleppo in advance of an attempted UN-brokered ceasefire appears to have failed, with opposition groups insisting that supply lines remained open and that scores of troops and militiamen had been killed.

The regime’s offensive has been seen in the opposition-held north as a death knell for the UN deal, negotiated by its special envoy Staffan de Mistura, for a six-week ceasefire in the city.

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Turkey and US agree to train and arm Syrian rebels in fight against Isis

Rebel fighters drive a tank near the frontline in the village of Ratyan in the Syrian countryside on Thursday. Photograph: Zein Al-Rifai/AFP/Getty Images

Training could begin as early as next month at base in Turkey

Turkish officials suggest trained rebels could also target Syrian government

Turkey and the United States signed an agreement Thursday to train and arm Syrian rebels fighting the Islamic State group, said the US embassy in Ankara.

The two countries have been in talks about such a pact for several months. The deal was signed on Thursday by US ambassador John Bass and Turkish foreign ministry undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu, said embassy spokesman Joe Wierichs. He gave no further details.

Related: Syrians have been oppressed by a dictator and jihadists, and bombed by the west – and you call us terrorists? | Zaina Erhaim

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