Iraq: Islamic Militias Take Over the North of the Country
Fighters of the ISIL in Ramadi (center of the country) in March.
On July 10, 2014, the militias of the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL), a jihadist Sunni formation that is striking in Iraq and Syria, took Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, along with a large part of the province of Ninawa in the north of the country. The Vatican agency Fides announced on the same day that the Christians who were not able to flee Mosul, which is about 300 km to the north of Bagdad, are now obliged to stay home, between the curfew and the constant water and electricity outages. According to an article in the French newspaper Libération, published online on June 24, the ISIL ordered hundreds of Christians still residing in the country to pay the “jizya”, a special tax per head, that grants them the status of citizen of the second zone. “The have to choose between paying, converting or leaving,” explained Fr. Issa Tahir, adding that two churches in Mosul, one of the Holy Ghost that belongs to the Chaldean Church, and the other under construction for the Armenian community, have been completely vandalized. According to Libération, a statue of Our Lady that was on top of one church was also destroyed.
28 km from Mosul, the Islamist militia attacked the city of Bakhdida, in the Plains of Ninawa, but were pushed back on June 25 by the Kurdish militia, the “Peshmergas”, from Iraqi Kudristan.
The Assyrian International News Agency added on June 26 that most of the Assyrian Christians, about 50,000 in number, then took refuge in the neighboring cities, Erbil, Dohuk, Alqosh, Tel Keppe, Telsqop and Ankawa. “The churches and monasteries are overflowing with Christian refugees: the sanitary situation is deplorable.”
On June 27, Fides reported the statement of the Syrian Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Archbishop Yohanna Petros Moshe, concerning the dramatic situation of the Christians in this new explosion of the conflict: “Bakhdida and the other cities of the Plains of Ninawa were for many years a place of peace and of peaceful coexistence. We Christians are disarmed and we have sparked no conflict with the Sunnites, the Shiites, the Kurds, or any other entities that form the Iraqi nation.” The archbishop called upon “the political leaders of the entire world”, “international organizations” and “all men of good will” to “intervene immediately”, adding that “the world cannot close its eyes to the drama of an entire people that have fled their homes in a space of a few hours, taking only the clothes on their backs.”
After the Islamic forces’ attacks in the north, Marc Fromager, director of Help to the Church in Distress, declared on June 26: we have spoken of wars between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. But in the end, the target is nonetheless the Christians!”
(Sources: api/fides/aed/liberation/christianophobie.fr – DICI no.298 dated July 4, 2014)
You can also read :
Iraq: Until the “grace of martyrdom”
Iraq: The perpetrators of the attack on the cathedral in Baghdad sentenced to death
Iraq: A survivor of the attack in Baghdad tells her story
Iraq: Despite the Elections, the Situation Becomes Worse for the Christians
Iraq : Silence regarding the murder of Christians
