BEIRUT — The armed parties to the Syrian conflict include the regime's army, various opposition factions, the Islamic State (IS), Jabhat al-Nusra and other groups, as well as Kurdish groups such as the Kurdistan Workers Party and the armed forces of the Kurdish self-administration. However, only few know that there is also an armed Christian militia in Syria fighting on several fronts along with all those groups in a bid to protect the smallest Syrian minorities threatened with extinction.

Al-Monitor interviewed Ahiqar Issa, one of the Christian militia officials, who talked about the armed force to which he belongs. He talked about the force's goals and latest engagements, and insisted that he considers himself Syrian first and foremost, and then Syriac Orthodox.

Issa proudly said that he belongs to an indigenous group that was founded in Syria 2,000 years ago — well before other minority groups in Syria — and that this is what drove him and his militia to take up arms to defend their identity and land. Issa lives in the al-Jazira region, which makes up the Syrian desert border area with Iraq and Turkey. This area administratively stretches along several Syrian provinces, including Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, Hasakah and Qamishli.

Issa said that up until the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011, Christians of different sects numbered about 250,000 in these areas. However, only 100,000 are left today, as the rest were forced to leave their homes and villages to escape persecution and being killed at the hands of their many enemies.