Syria Direct: News Update 12-03-2013

* The Free Syrian Army downed a government warplane over the eastern suburbs of Homs Tuesday as clashes continue in the nation’s third-largest city, according to Suhaib al-Ali, the rebel group’s regional spokesman.

* An average of 92 citizens were killed per day as a result of the Syrian conflict in November 2013, reported the Syrian Network for Human Rights Monday.

* The “evidence indicates responsibility at the highest level of government, including the head of state,” UN Human Rights chief Navi Pillay said in Geneva on Monday, discussing findings by the UN team of experts tasked with investigating the August 21^st chemical attacks.

* State run news agency SANA reported that “terrorist takfiri” groups have attacked the ancient Christian village of Maloula north of Damascus Monday, as the Syrian Foreign Ministry called on the United Nations Security Council to condemn the acts. The  historic Aramaic-speaking town was the focus of heavy fighting between government and rebel forces in September, when it changed hands four times.

* The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has hoisted its banner over the Church of Armenian Martyrs in the city of a-Raqqa, converting it into a proselytization center, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Monday. On September 25^th, ISIS militants seized control of the Church of the Armenian Martyrs and the al-Bishara Church, destroying sacred artifacts.    

An ISIS banner hangs over the Church of Armenian Martyrs in a-Raqqa.

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