{"id":27454,"date":"2018-02-27T09:54:20","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T09:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=27454"},"modified":"2018-02-28T09:34:10","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T09:34:10","slug":"syria-sky-turned-black-bombs-eyewitness-account-damascus-john-pontifex-acn-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/02\/27\/syria-sky-turned-black-bombs-eyewitness-account-damascus-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"SYRIA: &#8220;When the sky turned black with bombs&#8221; &#8211; John Pontifex \u2013 ACN UK"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>SYRIA<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong> &#8220;When the sky turned black with bombs&#8221; &#8211; eyewitness account from Damascus<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A religious Sister in Damascus has told how she, fellow nuns and students narrowly escaped death onTuesday, 20<sup>th<\/sup> February when the sky \u201cturned black\u201d on one of the deadliest days of the conflict in the Syrian capital. Describing the situation at her convent in the Bab Touma district of Damascus\u2019s Old City, Sister Annie Demerjian said that a rocket landed very close by and that had it exploded she and some of the university students \u201cwould have been wounded or killed\u201d. Speaking the next day (Wednesday, 21<sup>st<\/sup> February) to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Sister Annie said that the windows of the hostel where she works were shaking because of the bombs and that in response the students were evacuated to the relative safety of the corridors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Sister Annie, a leading project partner for ACN, which provides emergency and pastoral help in Syria, described how another member of her congregation, Sister Manal, was running back to the convent in Bab Touma from the school where she teaches: \u201cI had Sister Manal on the phone as she was running. I said to her: \u2018Don\u2019t hang up. Stay on the phone.\u2019 She was saying. \u2018You can\u2019t see the sky. It has turned black.\u2019 \u201d\u00a0 Somehow, she made it back to the convent unharmed. Sister Annie\u2019s comments come after a sudden upsurge of violence in Damascus including the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, with reports of more than 250 people killed in the last three days. Sister Annie said: \u201cYesterday was like hell. It was raining bombs. There were so many shells and so many people injured.\u201d The Sister quoted unconfirmed reports of up to 51 rockets landing in and around Bab Touma.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Church sources have told ACN that this week in Damascus\u2019 President Bridge area, Al-Wasa\u2019a, Burj Al Rous and Abbasid Square many were killed and dozens were injured. \u201cI saw people taking their children and running \u2013 it was just like Aleppo where I was before the ceasefire there,\u201d Sister Annie said. \u201cAt 3.30pm a rocket landed on the roof of the Patriarchate close to us. \u00a0Somehow it did not explode. If it had done so, we could have been killed.\u201d Describing the situation today as calmer, Sister Annie said many schools had now closed even though it is not officially holiday time. She said: \u201cWe have to carry on. Life is stronger than death. We don\u2019t know how long this violence will continue but it can\u2019t last forever.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0\u201cThe Lord has been good to us. So far, none of us Sisters has been hurt but so many others have suffered.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cPlease pray for us. The only way forward for us in prayer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Syria is a priority country for Aid to the Church in Need and last year the charity fulfilled more than 140 projects there \u2013 most of the emergency help including food, shelter and medicine \u2013 but also pastoral help, support for Sisters, Mass stipends, repairs to churches and convents.<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<h5><\/h5>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>John Pontifex \u2013 ACN UK<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SYRIA &#8220;When the sky turned black with bombs&#8221; &#8211; eyewitness account from Damascus &nbsp; A religious Sister in Damascus has told how she, fellow nuns and students narrowly escaped death onTuesday, 20th February when the sky \u201cturned black\u201d on one of the deadliest days of the conflict in the Syrian capital. Describing the situation at&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>SYRIA: &quot;When the sky turned black with bombs&quot; - John Pontifex \u2013 ACN UK - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/02\/27\/syria-sky-turned-black-bombs-eyewitness-account-damascus-john-pontifex-acn-uk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SYRIA: &quot;When the sky turned black with bombs&quot; - John Pontifex \u2013 ACN UK - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SYRIA &#8220;When the sky turned black with bombs&#8221; &#8211; eyewitness account from Damascus &nbsp; A religious Sister in Damascus has told how she, fellow nuns and students narrowly escaped death onTuesday, 20th February when the sky \u201cturned black\u201d on one of the deadliest days of the conflict in the Syrian capital. 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