After massacre of Syrian Christians, Archbishop calls for prayers and begs for help

The Syrian Orthodox Metropolitan of Homs and Hama, Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh, has called for prayers for the Syrian Christians following an attack on the city of Sadad in which 45 Christians were killed and half of the city destroyed by "armed men and terrorists."

On the blog of The Orthodox Church on which he gave the above summary of the destruction, he pleads:

3000 people were held hostage, and we cried out to world, and no-one heard us, except for the minority which came to our aid, and stood in solidarity with us.  Where is the Christian conscience?  Where, the Syriac conscience?  Where is the human conscience?  Where are my brothers, the metropolitans, priests, and friends? Where… where? And no-one answers… except for a few.  There is a lump in the throat and burning in the heart for all that’s happened in my metropolitanate and its poor suffering people which no sooner did it flee to a place of refuge, then left from there empty-handed, and after all this, to where, I don’t know…

The attack is the "largest massacre of Christians" in the Syrian civil war thus far.  Speaking with Fides News Agency, the Archbishop said:

45 innocent civilians were martyred for no reason, and among them several women and children, many thrown into mass graves. Other civilians were threatened and terrorized. 30 were wounded and 10 are still missing. For one week, 1,500 families were held as hostages and human shields. Among them children, the elderly, the young, men and women. Some of them fled on foot travelling 8 km from Sadad to Al-Hafer to find refuge. About 2,500 families fled from Sadad, taking only their clothes, due to the irruption of armed groups and today they are refugees scattered between Damascus, Homs, Fayrouza, Zaydal, Maskane, and Al-Fhayle.