Syrian Bishop Says Christians in Aleppo Are 'Under Bombs Every Day'

A Syrian Bishop has spoken out against recent violence affecting Christians in Aleppo, saying that they are "under bombs every day."

"We are under bombs every day. I think many Christians will flee from Aleppo and seek shelter in the coastal area, but they will do it when schools and universities close, after the exams. In the disaster in which we live, even this year schools and universities remained open in the central districts of Aleppo," Syrian Jesuit Antoine Audo, the Chaldean Bishop of Aleppo, told Fides News Agency in a recent interview.

"Many still believe that studying is important for the future although one lives in a city that seems to have no future," Audo added.

The bishop went on to tell the international community to be aware that some groups may try to describe the recent violence in Aleppo as a fight between Christians and Muslims, adding that some groups may try to divide areas of the city by religion to pit groups against each other and therefore gain more control.

"Of course, Christians are the most defenseless group, they have no weapons, they are afraid. But certain slogans and certain driven interpretations only serve to hide the real reasons and the real dynamics of the war. There are those who want to divide the whole area into small sectarian entities, as they tried to do in Iraq, in order to continue to dominate everything," Audo said.

Bishop Mar Mellis of the Assyrian Church of the East has also recently indicated that he is fighting to free Christian hostages from the Islamic State after they were kidnapped in February from their village in northeastern Syria.

Mellis's church reportedly offered the terror group a ransom sum, which was rejected for being too low.