Muslim extremists in Syria torture, rape Christian woman for 9 hours before stoning her to death

by Leah MarieAnn Klett, Christian Post Contributor |
An Assyrian woman attends a mass in solidarity with Assyrians abducted by Islamic State fighters in Syria, March 1, 2015. Islamic State militants have taken hundreds of Assyrian prisoners in Iraq and Syria. | Photo: Reuters/Omar Sanadiki

Muslim extremists tortured and repeatedly raped a Christian woman for over nine hours before stoning her to death in the Syrian province of Idlib, a disturbing new report has revealed.

According to persecution watchdog International Concern, 60-year-old Suzan Der Kirkour, a gardener and Arabic teacher, was found dead on July 9 outside her village, al-Yaqoubiyeh, which is located just north of the jihadist stronghold of Jisr Al-Shughour.

An autopsy report found that Suzan was tortured and raped over the span of nine hours before being stoned to death.

The incident was confirmed by humanitarian organization SOS Chrétien's d'Orient, which wrote in a statement that "cruel was her ordeal. The reality is just as much... (a) virgin at sixty, she died under the repeated assaults of the jihadists of al-Nusra."

"The autopsy reveals that Suzan had been subjected to repeated rape since the afternoon of Monday (the 8th) until early Tuesday morning, only hours before her discovery. As a martyr, she is joined in Heaven by thousands of Christian brothers, who died in the arena of barbarism," continued the statement.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the incident: "Her body was found with marks of torture on it. And according to forensic medicine, the woman had been tortured for about 9 hours before she was stoned to death by unidentified persons," read the report.

The attackers are believed to be members of the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group, formerly affiliated with al Qaeda, which maintains a strong presence in the Idlib governorate.

Al-Yaqoubiyeh is a Christian village, but most of the women have left because of ongoing persecution at the hands of Muslim extremists. Suzan was one of the few Christians still living in the jihadist-held areas in northern Syria.

Claire Evans, ICC's regional manager for the Middle East, condemned the killing and called her untimely death and the manner of her murder "horrifying."

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