ASIA/SYRIA - The driver who had just accompanied two Bishops of Aleppo at the airport was killed

Aleppo (Agenzia Fides) – He was called Youssef Karme. He was a Greek-Catholic driver, father of three children. He drove the buses of an Armenian Catholic school in Aleppo, and he often used his private car to transport the Bishops and priests of the Syrian metropolis. During his last trip he had driven Armenian Catholic Archbishop Boutros Marayati, the Maronite Youssef Anis Abi-Aad and a priest to the airport, who had to go to Lebanon to take part in the Assembly of Patriarchs and Catholic Bishops of the Middle East, underway in Harissa. On the way back, he was killed with two shots.
The circumstances of the attack and dynamics are not clear. From Harissa, Archbishop Marayati reports to Fides: "We only know that he was killed, but we do not know by whom and in what way. We do not know if the shots came from a distance or at close range, if the were shot by soldiers of the regular army or insurgents. The road to the airport is very dangerous. Karme's car was the last in a convoy of five cars. Other drivers, who drove at high speed, when they arrived in Aleppo, realized that he was not there. Among them were two of the victim’s brothers, who immediately returned and found the car off the road, with the lifeless body of Youssef inside".
Archbishop Marayati confirms to Fides that Aleppo is a city scarred by the conflict: "Last week a bomb was launched on our school. At that time, providentially, there was no one. Otherwise it would have been a massacre of children. " (GV) (Agenzia Fides 05/12/2012).