Catholic parish, Christian homes set aflame in Syria

July 18, 2025

Fire was set to a church and dozens of Christian homes in As-Sawra al-Kabira (Al-Sura al-Kabira), a small village in southern Syria, according to multiple media reports.

Aid to the Church in Need identified the church as St. Michael (Mar Michael), a Melkite Catholic parish, and reported that 38 Christian homes had been destroyed. The homeless Christians took refuge in Shahba, a nearby small city, where “they are currently living in precarious conditions” in a church hall.

Reporting on the July 15 incident, Syriac Press quoted Father Butrus al-Jut, the parish priest:

They didn’t stop at the church. They burned and ransacked our homes. They shattered our windows, stole our belongings, and set our lives aflame ... This church is not made of stones. It is built on faith—faith that still lives in our hearts. And we will rebuild it.

“The Mar Michael Church, a modest stone structure with deep roots in local tradition, has stood as a spiritual and cultural landmark in Al-Sura al-Kabira for generations,” Syriac Press reported. “More than just a house of worship, it served as a gathering point for community events and a symbol of resilience in a region long known for its religious and ethnic diversity.”

It was unclear who perpetrated the attack. The village is located in Suwayda Governorate, the site of recent clashes between the Syrian military and Druze militias.

Elsewhere, in Al-Khreibat in Tartus Governorate, a planned bomb attack on a Maronite Catholic church was thwarted with on July 13 with the assistance of government security forces, according to Aid to the Church in Need.

The new violence against Syrian Christians follows a June 22 attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Damascus, Syria’s capital.

 

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Further information:

• New Wave of Violence Against Christian Communities in Syria: Church Attacked and Bomb Plot Foiled (Aid to the Church in Need)
• Church torched in southern Syria as violence spreads to rural villages (Syriac Press)