Syrian helicopters bombarding Qaryatayn
al-Qaryatayn is a town in Homs Governorate, Syria, located to the southeast of Homs city. Situated on an oasis in the Syrian desert, Qaryatayn had a population of 16,795 people, with the majority being Sunni Muslim or Christian; it was one of the centers of the Syrian Christian population. During the Syrian Civil War, al-Qaryatayn was occupied by the Islamic State after an offensive on 5 August 2015, but Qaryatayn was liberated by the Syrian Arab Army on 3 April 2016. At that point, the 1,500-year-old Monastery of St. Elian had been demolished by IS, and hundreds of Christians had left the town to avoid persecution by the jihadists.