The Christian community has tried to avoid taking sides in the civil war. In
Aleppo, it recruited vigilantes from the Boy Scout movement to protect
churches, but as the war moved into the city and spread across its suburbs
they have begun to accept weapons from the
army and joined forces with Armenian groups to repel opposition guerrillas.


"Everybody is fighting everybody," said George, an Armenian
Christian from the city. "The Armenians are fighting because they
believe the FSA are sent by their Turkish oppressors to attack them, the
Christians want to defend their neighbourhoods, Shabiha regime militia are
there to kill and rape, the army is fighting the FSA, and the [Kurdish
militant group] PKK have their own militia too."


For the past six weeks up to 150 Christian and Armenian fighters have been
fighting to prevent Free Syrian Army rebels from entering Christian
heartland areas of Aleppo.


Last month the Syrian army claimed a 'victory' in removing FSA fighters from
the historic Christian quarter of Jdeidah. But Christian


militia fighters told the Daily Telegraph it was they who had first attacked
the FSA there.



"The FSA were hiding in Farhat Square in Jdeideh. The Church committees
stormed in and cleansed the area. Then the Syrian army


joined us. They claimed the victory on State television," said George,
who like many Christian refugees is too scared to give his full name. "The
rebels were threatening the churches."


The area, defined by its boutique shops, narrow cobbled streets and the spires
and cupolas of the Maronite, Orthodox and Armenian churches, had over the
weeks become infiltrated with sniper positions and checkpoints, residents
said.


"FSA snipers were on the rooftops and they were attacking the Maronite
church and Armenian residents there," said a former clergyman calling
himself John, now in Beirut, who said he had witnessed the battle.


The battle for Aleppo has become bitter, with militant jihadist groups playing
a more prominent role than in any other city.


It has become increasingly scarred by accusations of atrocities on both sides,
most recently the mass killing of 20 regime troops, whose bodies were
displayed on a video apparently uploaded to the internet by a rebel militia.


Residents of the city told The Telegraph that the city's minorities feared
that they would suffer the same fate as Christians in Iraq, who


were heavily targeted by the sectarian violence that erupted after the 2003
war.


"They are shouting 'the Alawites to the graves and the Christians to
Beirut," said an Armenian mother of four who recently fled the city – a
claim also made by several other Christian refugees.


John said that contrary to reports Aleppo's minority groups and wealthy
residents were not all regime supporters. But he said they felt they had to
protect themselves from 'peasant immigrants' who were using the war to
destroy the city's sophisticated


heart.


"I am not in support of the government, but the FSA are all a bunch of
thugs and thieves. I watched them steal from a textile


factory – they took everything; gas, materials, even the beading machines!"


Increasingly on the offensive, Syrian rebels killed at least 18 soldiers in a
car bomb and ground attack on a military position in neighbouring Idlib
province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.


In Aleppo on Wednesday four Syrian Armenians were reported killed and 13
wounded in an ambush near the airport.


The new UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
in Damascus on Thursday, in a last-ditch effort to rescue the country from
civil war.


Any military intervention looked to be firmly off limits on Wednesday. Philip
Hammond, the defence secretary, made clear that Western countries would not
consider such action whilst Russia and China continued to oppose it.


Seeing little hope of change many Christians have already joined the hundreds
of thousands who have fled the country. The UN High


Commission for Refugees said 253,000 Syrians were now registered with them.


Many Christians say they hold little hope of returning.