IG/YOUTUBE Syrian Catholic Archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart has welcomed Russian airstrikes in the country

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According to Jean-Clement Jeanbart, a Catholic archbishop in the city, Syrians are "feeling relaxed" about Moscow's air strikes. He said people were "generally feeling positive" about the Russian pounding of ISIS targets, saying it gave them fresh hope of an end to the four-year civil war. He added: "Things have begun to change since the Russians are bombing ISIS." The archbishop, who has warned about the threat of a Christian annihilation at the hands of jihadi factions. He said: "Please, I ask you, I beseech you to have another look at our situation to see what is underneath, what is happening.

IG Christian churches have been targeted by ISIS fanatics, with hundreds being destroyed

"It is terrible for us to see all the marvellous things we had destroyed for pretend democracy and freedom. Our country was fighting for 50-60 years to become a secularist regime, a pluralistic country, to give citizens their rights of religion and freedom of choice ... and you are destroying this work and pushing on us fundamental jihadis who want to kill everyone who is not similar to them."

Things have begun to change since the Russians are bombing ISIS Jean-Clement Jeanbart

Archbishop Jeanbart also described as a "big lie" the notion that Syrian rebels were battling President Bashar al-Assad to bring about democracy and greater freedoms for civilians. "My colleagues — bishops, priests and faithful — in Syria now feel they have hope that the problems will be sorted and the war will finish since Russia intervened and struck Daesh [ISIS] seriously," he said. "That is what they think."

IG ISIS fanatics have carried out brutal executions of Christians across the country

GETTY Countless Christian Syrians have been displaced since the violence erupted