“I’m telling you, I was not afraid,” the pastor told NBC News Wednesday. Its rise is particularly vexing for Syria’s religious minorities, who were often pitted against each other during the ironfisted rule of Assad and the years of civil war. “Maybe there will be a civil war. Khatab Shawi told NBC News he might go and fight in Gaza. One of the young militiamen insisted that Syria’s minorities had nothing to fear under the new regime.

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Persons: Bashar al, Rafaat Abul Nasser’s Lady, “, Paul, ”, Nasser, Rafaat Abul Nasser, Matt Bradley, Al, ” Mohammad al, Bashir, Ahmad al, Abu Mohammad al, Assad, Ammar Shahbander, ” Shahbander, Jolani, Khatab Shawi, Abdulwahed Organizations: NBC, Hayat, Islamic, della, U.S . State Department, United Nations Commission, “, NBC News Locations: DAMASCUS, Syria, Damascus Church, Damascus, Al Qaeda, Islamic State, United States, Europe, Idlib, Syria’s, Lebanon, Aleppo, Gaza, Netherlands, Nasser’s