Since fleeing her hometown in northeastern Syria, Suad Simon prays every day for the safety of her husband, who stayed behind with other fighters to defend their majority-Assyrian village. Assyrian Christians like Simon, who escaped the town’s occupation by the Islamic State group in 2015 and did not choose to emigrate, now anxiously watch the advance of Turkish forces towards their villages in the south of Hasakeh province. Simon, 56, fled her village of Tal Kefji that is not far from areas still hit by sporadic fighting and sought refuge with a relative in Tal Tamr to the south.
