ASIA/SYRIA - The self-defense "Sotoro" militias shoot each other

Qamishli (Agenzia Fides) - Yesterday, Thursday, 24 September, violent armed clashes broke out between two brigades belonging to the self-defense "Sotoro" militias, often credited by the media as "Christian" militias, this is what local Kurdish sources reported to Agenzia Fides. The shootings took place in the town of al-Malikiyah, not far from Qamishli, in the northeastern Syrian province of Jazira, and at least five people on both sides were wounded. The episode reveals the divisions and conflicts of interest that contrast the various armed factions. Some of them act in coordination with the Kurdish militias, while others appear connected to the troops of the government army.
Last March, Bishop Afram Athnil, a member of the Assyrian Church of the East publicly said he does not identify himself with any of the warring parties in the Syrian conflict, stressing that Christians are "strangers to the gun culture" and clearly stated that no faction or paramilitary militia operating in Syria can present himself linked to the Assyrian Christian community.
He did so in a letter to the leaders of Daesh, to mark the distances from all armed groups operating in the field and to demand the release of hundreds of Christian hostages who are still in the hands of jihadists. In his letter Bishop Afram denied the existence of an alliance with the Kurdish soldiers linked to the PKK, and made it clear that militias known by the abbreviation of 'Sotoro', also described in the international press as Assyrian Christian militias, have had no mandate and no approval by the Church. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 25/09/2015)

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