Unless you followed the Syrian Civil War closely, or possibly have a special interest in Byzantine architecture, Qalb Loze is not a town you will have heard of. Tucked away in the northwest corner of Syria, near the border with Turkey, its population is only around 1,200. Most of the residents are followers of the Druze religion, olive and tobacco farmers whose crops fuel the local cigarette industry. They go to work every day in the shadow of an ancient Christian basilica, constructed around the year 470; not being Christians themselves, they haven’t had much use for it, although somebody tried using it as a sheep stable once. When the Syrian Civil War broke out in 2011, Qalb Loze stayed carefully neutral. But that didn’t save them when Ahmed al-Sharaa’s jihadists came to town.

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