Gunmen shot dead an Armenian Catholic priest and his father in cold blood as they were travelling in a car in northeastern Syria, on Monday, November 11, 2019.

Fr. Hovsep Petoian, the head of the Armenian Catholic community in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli near the border with Turkey, and his father, Fr. Abraham Petoian, were heading from Hasaka province to the province of Deir Al-Zor when they came under attack. The two men were due to oversee the restoration of a church in Deir Al-Zor.

A third man, a deacon from the town of Al-Hasakeh, was reportedly wounded in the attack.

More than 100,000 ethnic Armenians lived in Syria, mainly in the northwestern province of Aleppo, prior to the Syrian civil war. Many of them have fled, including thousands to Armenia.

ISIS CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY

The Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS) militants have claimed responsibility for the gunning down of the Armenian Catholic priest and his father in northeastern Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor, just hours after the shooting took place.

ISIS claimed via its Telegram channels to have killed the “two Christian priests” in al-Zir village, in the al-Busayrah sub-district of Deir ez-Zor.

ISIS militants had earlier persecuted Christians and displaced tens of thousands of them when it ruled large parts of Iraq and Syria.