"..Of the more than 80,000 Christians who lived in Homs prior to the uprising, approximately 400 remain today.
The cleansing (the mass murder) of Homs’ Christian neighborhoods occurred as the Syrian
military bombarded the Sunni opposition stronghold of Baba Amr,
naturally focusing the international media on stories of children maimed
by Assad’s artillery shells and sniper bullets. At the United Nations,
Assad’s opponents could not afford to highlight Christian persecution in
Homs, as they risked catering to a Russian-led campaign to preserve the
dictator’s rule by de-legitimizing the Syrian rebels for their
atrocities.
As rebel forces continue to chip away at Assad’s control over the
country, Syria’s Christians continue to be expelled or held at the mercy
of an increasingly extremist Sunni opposition.
For the newest generation of Sunni jihadists, Syria has become the
latest front in the struggle to wrest control of the region from rival
religious sects and foreign occupation. Many of these fighters hail from
the vast reaches of North Africa and the Gulf, arriving in Syria with
weapons, funds and a radical ideology.."