Unknown gunmen have shot dead an Armenian Catholic priest and his father as they were traveling in a car in northeastern Syria.

Father Hovsep Petoian, the head of the Armenian Catholic community in the the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli near the border with Turkey, and his father, Father Abraham Petoian, were heading to the province of Deir Al-Zor when they came under attack on November 11, Deacon Hakob Parsamian said.

The two men were due to oversee the restoration of a church in Deir Al-Zor. A third man, a deacon from the town of Al-Hasakeh, was reportedly wounded in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.