Christians in Iraq face liquidation

  • Mosul, the relentless slaughter of Iraqi Christians

  • Kurds Behind Violence Against Assyrians in Mosul

  • Iraq's Endangered Minorities: Catholic Chaldean, Syriac Orthodox, Assyrian, Armenian and Protestant Christians; and smaller Yazidi and Mandean communities

  • Statement on KRG expansion plans [PDF] (04 April 2024)

* This webpage is dedicated to the slaughter of Iraqi Christians in the North of Iraq. Read more about the fate of Iraqi minorities: Several of Iraq's minorities risk being wiped out as they face unprecedented levels of violence, according to a report by Minority Rights Group International. (27 Feb 2024)

Background:

Some of Iraq's religious and ethnic minorities have lived in the region for two millennia. Yet the violence gripping the country means many now face a terrible choice: convert, leave or die.

Minority priests, politicians and civilians are being targeted and killed simply because of their ethnic or religious affiliations.

For the Christians, still speaking in Aramaic, the language of the Bible, the threat comes from the fact that their faith associates them with the West and with the Multi-National Force in Iraq.

What about Mandaeans, followers of John the Baptist, whose faith is pre-Christian? They are unable to protect themselves as others in Iraq have been forced to, because their faith forbids them to take up arms.

Yazidis too are under attack. Their figure of worship is Maluk Ta'us, the fallen angel - the Yazidis believe he was forgiven by God. Their faith has led to them being accused of "devil worship" and they are being slaughtered for their beliefs. Both the Mandaeans and Yazidis have had fatwas issued against them.

Other minorities include Bahá'ís, Faili Kurds, Jews, Palestinians, Shabaks and Turkomans. Together they make up 10 percent of Iraq's population.

The numbers leaving Iraq are disproportionately high.

Since 2024, the United Nations refugee agency has recorded that 44 percent of Iraqi asylum seekers to Syria are Christian. Christians were also the largest group of refugees arriving in the Jordanian capital Amman.

But those who flee are still at the mercy of international case-by-case asylum policy. The United States and Britain were quick to invade Iraq - but are nevertheless remarkably reluctant to shoulder the refugee burden that has resulted as a consequence of their actions.

Northern Iraq - including the autonomous region of Kurdistan - is not safe for minority groups. One flashpoint will be the future of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

The Turkish-speaking Turkomans - Iraq's third largest ethnic group - see Kirkuk as their historical home. Like other minorities in the area they are already coming under pressure to sign up for Kurdish political parties in order to strengthen the Kurdish claim to Kirkuk.

With tensions rising, Kurdish militias have already abducted Turkomens and reportedly subjected them to torture. It is vitally important that all groups in Kirkuk can exercise their vote in the referendum. In previous elections, corruption in the system has left minorities unable to vote.

Read: Brookings-University of Bern report on Iraq’s Minorities (13 Jan 2024)

Estimates On Iraq’s Minorities:
Christians: 2024: 1-1.4 million, Today, 600,000-800,000
Jews: 2024: a few hundred, Today: 10-15
Mandeans: 2024: 30,000, Today: Fewer than 13,000
Palestinians: 2024: 35,000, Today: 15,000
Turkomen: 2024: 800,000 claimed, Today: as few as 200,000
Yazidis: 2024: No known, Today: around 550,000

Mosul, the capital city of Ninewa, lies 405 km north of Baghdad.

The original city of Mosul stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient biblical city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial areas on both banks, with five bridges linking the two sides.

Despite having an amount of Kurdish population, it does not form part of the area controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

There are different communities in Mosul like Christians, Shiites and Kurds along with a Sunni majority.

The city is also a historic center for the Nestorian Christianity of the Assyrians, containing the tombs of several Old Testament prophets such as Jonah, Yunus in Arabic, and Nahum.

Kurdish expansion squeezes northern Iraq's minorities
Leila Fadel | McClatchy Newspapers - 12 Nov 2024

Kurdish forces have detained Murad Kashtu al Asi three times in the isolated district of Sinjar in Nineveh province. First, they beat him and accused him of being a terrorist and a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a mostly Sunni Arab political party. The second time, they detained him for several hours, he said. The third time, they hit him in the face with the butts of their guns. "If you leave alive this time, then work with us or we will kill you," he said his captors told him. He was held six days and released Sunday after U.S. forces intervened on his behalf, he said. The Kurds never charged him with a crime and even called him their "brother." His offense was working with an Arab party in territory that the Kurds covet....
 

Read the full article - www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/55711.html

Crisis Escalates For Christians in Iraq

AINA - 07 Nov 2024

 

Violence and persecution against minority groups in Iraq continues, including communities of Christians which have been in existence for over 1500 years. The Assyrian Church of the East, as one of the Churches most affected, has mobilised itself worldwide to call attention to the crisis, and seek help where help can be found. Other Churches under extreme duress are the Syrian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, and Chaldean.

 

Full Story - http://www.aina.org/news/20081107153853.htm

Christians On the Run in Iraq
Peter Wensierski and Bernhard Zand, Spiegel - 02 Nov 2024

... Elections to Iraq's provincial parliaments are scheduled for next spring. But in late September, the Baghdad parliament revoked a law guaranteeing minorities a fixed number of seats. The attacks by gangs began when Christians in Mosul protested the government move (...) When Rami Kamil reached the capital last Tuesday, having fled Mosul, his already dwindling confidence in the government had vanished. A few days earlier Prime Minister Maliki had promised to send additional police brigades to the north to protect Christians. But Kamil saw no evidence of police on the road from Mosul. "All I saw were columns of refugees heading to the east or south," he said...

Read the full article - www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,587345,00.html

Christians In Mosul Update
Musings on Iraq - 01 Nov 2024

No one has officially been blamed for the attacks. Security forces have arrested ten suspects, but nothing about their identities or motivations have been disclosed. That has opened the door to a plethora of theories. Initially, most reports focused upon Islamist insurgents that have targeted Christians before. The Iraqi paper Azzaman however, reported that an Interior Ministry official denied Al Qaeda in Iraq was involved, while Iraq’s Alsumaria TV said that Al Qaeda fighters had in fact been arrested in Mosul preparing attacks. The TV report also said that gunmen were working with members of the Iraqi Army to carry out their attacks. Now there are increasing stories claiming the Kurds as the culprits. All of the attacks but one, for example, have occurred in the Kurdish controlled part of Mosul. A leaked government investigation points the finger at the Kurds, while a Christian member of a local council in Ninewa province said that Kurds were the ones arrested for the incidents. Allegedly, Maliki ordered the Kurdish army units out of the city as a result. The government inquiry into the attacks supposedly said that the Kurds carried out the attacks to expand their control over Ninewa, the northern portions of which the Kurds wish to annex. Weakening the Christian population there would eliminate one opponent of the Kurds’ plan.

Read the full article - http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/2008/11/christians-in-mosul-update.html

Solidarity with the besieged Christians of Iraq
Adib Kawar, Palestine Think Tank – 31 Oct 2024

.. A group of Iraqi leaders and activists in Lebanon, representing various Iraqi political parties and movements representing all of its religious sects met at the Lebanese Union of the Press house responding to a call from the "The Iraqi National Accord Movement". The meeting was attended by Lebanese personalities. The attendants made a point of the importance of the unity of the different components of the Iraqi society and the Iraqi homeland... Former Iraqi Minister, Adnan Ajanaby, accused the occupation of introducing sectarian partaking and deepening the fragmentation in its social and political fabric. He added, "those who accepted this sectarian fragmentation should be held responsible for what we ended with, and we are not Sunnis, Shiites, Christians and Kurds, we are steadfast Iraqis and shall return to raise Iraq’s name and unity high and undivided.".. The Reverend Father Suheil Fasha said, "Iraq was known for its unity, it can never be partitioned and fragmented. Christians in Iraq were there since the first century AD."...

Read the full article - palestinethinktank.com/2008/10/31/solidarity-with-the-besieged-christians-of-iraq/

An appeal to the Christians of the world on behalf of the Christians of Iraq
ICIN -IRAQI CHRISTIANS IN NEED -  31 Oct 2024

During the past few days, many Christians have been killed in Mosul, just because they are Christians. Several thousands have fled their houses and took refuge in Churches in the city and nearby mountains. ICIN has taken the decision to make a substantial donation, from its reserve plus what is received from the "Crisis in Mosul Fund", directly to those in Mosul who are taking care of the displaced. We urge you to help through ICIN, or any of the organisations concerned with providing aid to those displaced...

Read the full article – www.icin.org.uk/pages/Appeals_current.htm

International Medical Corps delivers emergency supplies to 8,000 displaced Christians from Mosul

International Medical Corps - 30 Oct 2024

 

Threats against Christians living in Mosul intensified in early October, leading to the displacement of an estimated 11,000 persons. Many of those who left the city sought refuge in neighboring Tel Kef and Hamdaniya Districts, relying on community support networks, friends, and relatives for support.

 

Read the full article - http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/SHIG-7KXCZZ?OpenDocument

Ethnic cleansing of Christians in Mosul
Friendship Across Frontiers -  29 Oct 2024

...Your feeble report on the plight of the ethnic cleansing of Christians in Mosul is not only 5 years too late but lacking in clarity and objectivity. This process has been ongoing since 2003 in Basrah and Baghdad while the MNF allowed the Badr Brigade and Sadar militia to conduct their atrocities with impunity as long as they do not point their guns towards the occupier. Equally the Warlords Talibani and Barazani were allowed by the MNF to extend their land grabs in order to extend their de facto separate northern enclave at the expense of non-Kurds inhabitants of the region particularly in Kirkuk and Mosul. Surely your reporter could not expect to conduct these interviews with the fleeing Christian families in the presence of his security, which undoubtedly was drawn from the Warlords clan...

Read the full article - www.albasrah.net/pages/mod.html?mod=art&lapage;=../en_articles_2008/1008/faf_311008.htm

The uprooting conspiracy of Iraqi Christians
Adib Kawar and Rafik Abi Younis  - 28 Oct 2024

During the last few days continued protests took place against the forced displacement and assaults on one of the components of the Iraqi society, namely Christians in the Ninawa district and its capital Mosul. (The second largest city of Iraq). With the development of this dangerous situation it is of utmost importance to stress the following recapitulations: 1. It is not sufficient and persuasive that the counter campaign against what Christians in Iraq should be limited to is protests and denunciations, as what is taking place has exceeded in its size and aims a passing incident against a major component of the Iraqi society, and in particular in the city of Mosul where the plan reaches the extent of complete extermination and expulsion. 2. What is taking place cannot be committed by an expiatory group with limited possibilities by itself to commit such a role throughout Iraq, but it is likely that there is big support by enemy forces led by Israel whose outfits are openly operating day and night backed by U.S. intelligence services. They all aim at destroying the relations that bring together the various components of the Iraqi society and its diversity that is reflected by the Christian presence and their role in the Iraqi society, and so that there will be no more patriotic or national unity, and thus have the stage open for sectarian and denominational conflicts that drives the country one day after another to destruction and fragmentation....

Read the full article - palestinethinktank.com/2008/10/28/adib-kawar-and-rafik-abi-younis-the-uprooting-conspiracy-of-iraqi-christians/

Prices soar in Mosul as troops mass for new offensive
Jareer Mohammed, Azzaman – 28 Oct 2024

The government is massing troops in the restive Mosul in preparation for a large-scale offensive to subdue the northern city. Mosul is Iraq’s second largest city after Baghdad with nearly two million inhabitants. Thousands of troops with heavy military gear have already been deployed inside the city particularly its western side. The troops have set up scores of checkpoints and cordoned off neighborhoods in search of suspects. It will be the third massive military offensive on the city in one year. The previous two, in which large numbers of U.S. occupation troops took part, failed to bring peace to the city....

Read the full article - www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2008-10-28\kurd.htm

Some Displaced Iraqi Christians Ponder Kurds' Role
Corey Flintoff  - 28 Oct 2024

The religious cleansing in Mosul began with graffiti, some saying "get out or die," on the walls in Christian neighborhoods. Young men drove through the streets with loudspeakers, shouting at people to leave. Then the killing started. "My brother came home from work that day," says a 44-year-old Christian man identifying himself only as Abu Sara. "He went to a nearby shop, where suddenly gunmen turned up and asked him for his ID. Then they told his friends to step aside. They shot him dead and left." He says it's difficult to be certain why the attacks are taking place now, but the word among Christians in Mosul is that Kurds may have a hand in it. Abu Sara says all the attacks on Christians happened on the side of the city that's dominated by Kurdish troops, yet the Kurds did nothing to stop them. Um Reyan is a Christian woman whose family is now taking refuge in an Assyrian Catholic church. "We heard the people from another Christian neighborhood describing how these armed men stormed the houses and shouted at people to get out," she says. "They were speaking in a kind of pidgin Arabic, not like a Mosul accent at all, but like Kurds, trying to speak Arabic."...

Read the full article - www.aina.org/news/20081028180230.htm

Chaldean bishop: appeal for Mosul, emptied of Christians
Rabban Al-Qas – 27 Oct 2024

Through the agency AsiaNews, I wish to call upon all men of good will, those who respect man, and all believers in God to forcefully condemn the crimes that are being perpetrated against the Christians in Iraq, and in particular those taking place in Mosul in recent days (...) This tragedy - which recalls the situation of the Christians in the early centuries - began immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2024. What is taking place in these days is the result of a long silence on the part of the Iraqi prime minister and of the government of Baghdad, which has been unable to stop the wave of violence against Christians. What is taking place in these days is their responsibility, without forgetting the responsibilities of the American forces and representatives of the United Nations. What is taking place in Mosul is happening right in front of their eyes..

Read the full article - www.asianews.it/?l=en&art;=13587&size;=A

Kurds Behind Violence Against Assyrians in Mosul: Iraqi MP
AINA – 28 Oct 2024

Iraqi Parliament member Osama Al Najifi said to the Iraq News Agency on Saturday that Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki has confirmed that Kurdish political parties are carrying out the violence against Mosul's Assyrian community. "The prime minister showed me a document which he said proves the involvement of Kurdish militias in threats and killings against the Christian Assyrians in Mosul," stated Al Najifi, and said the prime minister told him "Your accusations against the Kurds have proven true." He notified the Iraqi News Agency that the committee charged with investigating the attacks on Assyrians in Mosul has clear proof of Kurdish involvement....

Read the full article - www.aina.org/news/20081025165905.htm

Christian displacement slows in Ninevah

BAGHDAD, 26 October 2024 (IRIN) - Fewer Iraqi Christian families are fleeing their homes in the northern province of Ninevah thanks to the heavy presence of security forces, but families who already fled anti-Christian attacks over the past few weeks are living in difficult conditions and are still reluctant to return to their homes, a local aid official said on 25 October.

full report - http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81125

Iraqi bishops reject annexing Christian areas by Kurds
Azzaman – 24 Oct 2024

Iraqi bishops have urged their hard-pressed Christian communities to reject moves to annex their areas to the Kurdish autonomous regions. The bishops made the statement following a meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in which they expressed their fears for the fate of Christian existence in Iraq particularly in the northern city of Mosul and it suburbs. The Province of Nineveh, of which Mosul is the capital, currently includes the largest remaining concentration of Christians in Iraq whose numbers have dwindled drastically since the 2024 U.S. invasion....

Read the full article - www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2008-10-24\kurd.htm

Chaldean bishop of Kirkuk: Christians being driven out of Mosul for political reasons
AsiaNews – 23 Oct 2024

...This campaign to drive out the Christians could conceal benefits of a political nature ahead of the upcoming elections in January of 2024, and the controversy over the approval of the provincial election law. The current law eliminates the quota reserved by tradition for Christians (and other minorities). Intimidating them and driving them out goes hand in hand with denying them representation. But the hypothesis cannot be excluded that the violence against the faithful also serves to reinforce the proposal for a Christian enclave in the plane of Nineveh....

Read the full article - www.asianews.it/?l=en&art;=13552&size;=A

Baath Party Statement
A statement concerning our people' sons and daughters from amongst the Christians who are being chased from their homes in Mosul
The Arab Baath Socialist Party – 23 Oct 2024

The US occupiers, their allies and their created tools plan to destroy Iraq as a people, as a land and as a civilization. Having ferociously attacked its state, raped its soil, declaring their ill famed decisions such as (uprooting the Baath), disbanding the heroic Iraqi army, they want now to destroy the social fabric of the Iraqi people through their evil plan. Hence, the US occupier undertook mass murder and genocide against the Iraqi people, exciting sectarian and ethnic strife, fomenting and encouraging even the inter killing in between the same community as it happened in Basra, Mayssan, Baghdad, Al Anbar, Nineveh and other districts of Iraq. This dirty job was handed to the Occupiers' puppets belonging to the stooges' political parties (Shia and Sunni) and the two collaborators Kurdish Parties (the Democratic Kurdistani and the Nationalistic Kurdistani parties). Today these same filthy tools target Christians from the sons and daughters of our people in the city of Mosul through criminal mass murder, forcing thousands of Christian families to flee their homes and chasing them away outside the city of Mosul...

Read the full article - http://www.al-moharer.net

UNHCR starts to help hundreds of Iraqi Christian refugees in Syria

UNHCR - 22 Oct 2024

Read the full Article - http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/EGUA-7KNSUN?OpenDocument&rc;=3&emid;=ACOS-635P5D

 

Iraqi government fails to halt anti-Christian campaign in Mosul
Azzaman – 22 Oct 2024

"Many Christians from Mosul have been systematically targeted recently and are no longer safe there. We are ready to provide support for those Iraqis that seek refuge in neighbouring countries," said Laurens Jolles, UNHCR's representative in Syria. "We are grateful that Syria continues to welcome refugees," he added of a country that is hosting at least 1.2 million Iraqi refugees. The measures the government has taken so far have failed to put an end to the exodus of Christians from the northern city of Mosul. Thousands of Christian families have fled the city following threats from unidentified groups. So far 14 Christians have been killed in the city. Some Iraqi politicians and media have raised questions on the timing and scale of the anti-Christian campaign in a city traditionally known for its tolerance... There are no clear answers to who is behind the campaign to force the Christians to flee. Some local media reports, quoting government officials, blame Kurdish militias which control Mosul’s left bank which has been emptied of its Christian population...
 

Read the full article - www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2008-10-22\kurd.htm

 

Kurdish Forces Confiscating Ration Cards, Weapons From Assyrians in North Iraq
AINA - 22 Oct 2024

 

..AINA has learned that agents from the Kurdish Asayesh intelligence service are currently confiscating ration cards of families who have fled from the violence in Mosul to the Nineveh Plain. The families are told the only way for them to retrieve their ration cards is to remain permanently in the Nineveh Plain. Several independent sources have accused the two dominate Kurdish political parties of staging the attacks against Assyrians for political reasons. Several Iraqi MPs have pointed out the KDP party, headed by Massoud Barazani, is responsible...
 

continued - www.aina.org/releases/20081022053834.htm
 

Uncertainty over who is behind attacks on Christians

BAGHDAD, 20 October 2024 (IRIN) - Iraqi officials, leaders of the Christian community and ordinary Christians are divided over who is behind the latest attacks on the country’s Christian minority.

full report - http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81000

Who persecutes Christians in Iraq?
Azzaman – 20 Oct 2024

The current plight of Christians in the northern city of Mosul is a reminder of how precarious conditions in Iraq as whole are. At least 2,500 families have been forced to leave the city, a dozen killed and many of their houses destroyed. Christians are not the only minority under persecution but their fleeing is being highlighted because it comes at a crucial moment for Iraq and particularly its northern region....

Read the full article - http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2008-10-20\kurd.htm

Kurdish Involvement Suspected in Attacks on Assyrians in Mosul
AINA -  18 Oct 2024

The continuing attacks on Assyrians in Mosul have been followed by a string of accusations from different sources claiming Kurdish involvement in the events that has forced 15000 Assyrians to flee the city of Mosul. Iraqi MP Osama Al Najifi, a native of the Mosul area, was the first high ranking official to point to Kurdish involvement in the attacks (AINA 10-12-2020). More recently a spokesman from Iraq's interior ministry said there is no evidence of Al Qaeda involvement (AINA 10-16-2008), and a high ranking Assyrian leader, Mr Yonadam Kanna, also a member of parliament, confirmed to reporters the assailants were wearing army uniforms. Adding to the suspicion, five known Sunni insurgent groups, including Al Qaeda, issued statements denouncing the attacks and denying involvement in them...

Read the full article - www.aina.org/releases/20081017000537.htm

A Cry from an Iraqi Christian woman
God is the Greatest! Where are you our beloved Saddam Hussein!
Christian woman - Al Moharer  - 18 Oct 2024

I am an Iraqi Christian woman from Mosul. We the Christians are the sons and daughters of this very soil of Iraq. In our beloved Iraq, were born our children, our fathers and our forefathers. We are a part of this sacred land of Iraq. We participated into building and defending Iraq. I couldn't help but to write to you, dear fellow Iraqis at Al-Basra network. For I know you will not divulge my name and I would like you to publish my message in your site and on every honorable and dignified Islamic and patriotic site. The bloodthirsty Kurdish Peshmergas are persecuting us, we the Iraqi Christians: They are burning our millennia churches.. They are the ones who murdered the Archbishop of Mosul the martyr Paulos Faraj Rahho for he was a real patriot. . He loathed the US occupation, didn't want to leave Mosul and defied the bloodthirsty Kurdish Peshmergas. The Zionist Media in the West represent the peshmergas as the angels and the wonderful...

Read the full article - http://www.al-moharer.net

Kurdish suspects arrested for attacks on Assyrians in Mosul
AINA – 17 Oct 2024

A spokesman for Iraq's defense ministry confirmed on Friday the capture of six men suspected of perpetrating attacks on the Assyrians in Mosul. Sources have told AINA that four suspects are residents of the Kurdish region and are affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (headed by Massoud Barazani) in northern Iraq, as shown by their ID cards. The affiliations of the two other suspected is not yet known. American forces in Mosul declined to comment on the arrests...

Read the full article - turkmenelinews.blogspot.com/2008/10/kurdish-suspects-arrested-for-attacks.html

Christians continue to flee northern Iraq
DPA – 16 Oct 2024

The deportation of Iraqi Christians from their homes in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul has been all too familiar over the past week after several were murdered.
...'More than one million Christians have migrated from Iraq after being harassed. More than 40 percent of all Iraqis who fled abroad during the past five years are minorities,’ said Warda, a mother of two....

Read the full article - www.sindhtoday.net/world/28922.htm

Bad Times For Iraq’s Christians

Musings on Iraq - 15 Oct 2024

 

Iraq’s Christians have been one of the most vulnerable groups in the country since the U.S. invasion. The recent attacks on them couldn’t have come at a worst time as they were already feeling rejected by parliament due to Article 50 being dropped from the provincial election law. Since so many Iraqis have voiced support for it however, it is likely that it will be re-instated. The attacks in Mosul, however, may taper off, but they have served their purpose. They have instilled fear in the Christian community and driven many out. It’s unknown when or if they will return, as Mosul remains one of the most violent cities in the country.

 

Read the full article - http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/2008/10/bad-times-for-iraqs-christians.html

 

UN envoy condemns attacks against minorities in Iraq

UN Radio - 13 Oct 2024

 

The head of the UN mission in Iraq has strongly condemned the targeting of Christians and other minority groups in Iraq. Staffan de Mistura says recent violent attacks targeting Christian communities, particularly in and around the northern city of Mosul, are aimed at fueling tensions.

 

Read the full article - http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/detail/10912.html

Iraqi Christians' murders condemned
AlJazeera.net  - 14 Oct 2024

Muslim scholars have spoken out against a spate of attacks against Christians in northern Iraq, after more than 12 members of the community were killed in recent weeks. The condemnation from the Organistation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) came on Tuesday, as Iraq's government pledged to send officials to the ethnically mixed city of Mosul to investigate the attacks (...) Kanna, like other Christians, said he hinted that there might be government involvement. "I don't want to accuse anyone, but I am saying that [those carrying out attacks] are wearing police uniforms," he said....

Read the full article - english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/10/20081014153936955903.html

More food aid needed for displaced Christians – official

13 October 2024 (IRIN), Calls for more humanitarian aid have been made as an increasing number of Christians flee their homes in and around the northern city of Mosul due to attacks by Sunni extremists.

Full report - http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80882

IRAQ: Attacks drive thousands of Christians out of Mosul

12 October 2024 (IRIN), Nearly 750 Christian families, about 3,750 individuals, have fled their homes in Mosul, a city about 400km north of Baghdad, as Sunni Muslim extremists have increased attacks against this religious minority since 4 October, a local official said on 11 October.

Full report - http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80872

KURDISH GROUPS BEHIND ATTACKS ON ASSYRIANS IN MOSUL: IRAQI MP
Assyrian International News Agency – 12 Oct 2024

Osama Al Najifi, a member of Iraq's parliament, told the Iraqi Independent Press Agency on Sunday he holds the Iraqi government responsible for what is happening to the Assyrian Christians in Mosul, and accused the "Kurdish militias" for carrying out the acts of ethnic cleansing. Al Najifi, a native of Mosul, claimed the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Kurdish Asayesh intelligence service are carrying out the attacks under the cover of the Iraqi military. He pointed out the military forces in Mosul are completely infiltrated by the Kurdish militia. Al Najifi said the Kurds carry out the attacks against the minority groups in order to Kurdify the city and change its demographic balance. Osama Al Najifi is a Sunni Arab and has a long record of defending the rights of the minorities in the Iraqi parliament...

Read the full article - turkmenfriendship.blogspot.com/2008/10/kurdish-groups-behind-attacks-on.html

Iraq pours police into Mosul to protect Christians
AFP - 12 Oct 2024

Iraq ordered nearly 1,000 police to patrol Christian areas of Mosul on Sunday as thousands of members of the minority group fled the worst violence against them in five years. The action came as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered an immediate investigation into the murders of Christians in the restive northern city, and pledged to take all steps necessary to protect the threatened community...

Read the full article - afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gTTe9VyH570H0AHOz1OHeAiVfpsg

Kurdish militias behind the massacres of the Christians in Mosul
Roads to Iraq – 12 Oct 2024

Few minutes ago, Aljazeera quoted a statement by the so called "Al-Qaeda" denies any involvement in the bloody campaign against the Christians in Mosul saying. Al-Qaeda has evidence that the Kurdish militia’s involvement in displacing and killing campaign of the Christians in order to control certain parts of the province. You can see Iraqi newspaper Azzaman’s confirmation in its headline today "Militias gunmen of powerful government parties roam the streets of Mosul chanting threat slogans". Iraqi MP Al-Najafi from the "Iraqi List" confirms this information saying: Kurdish Peshmerga militias are behind the forced displacement of Christians in the Mosul. The military forces in Mosul are infiltrated by the Kurdish militia using military vehicles to threat the Christians...

Read the full article - www.roadstoiraq.com/2008/10/12/kurdish-militias-behind-the-massacres-of-the-christians-in-mosul/

Iraqi Archbishop: Christians Face 'Liquidation'
Michelle A. Vu - 11 Oct 2024

The most senior Catholic cleric in Iraq warned that Christians in his country face "liquidation" if the Iraqi government and the U.S. military do not step-up protection for religious minorities in Iraq. "We are the target of a campaign of liquidation, a campaign of violence," said Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako, reported Agence France-Presse on Friday. "The objective is political."... He called on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite Muslim-led government to act on repeated promises to protect Iraq’s minorities. "We have heard many words from Prime Minister Maliki, but unfortunately this has not translated into reality," he said. "We continue to be targeted. We want solutions, not promises."...

Read the full article - www.christianpost.com/article/20081011/iraqi-archbishop-christians-face-liquidation.htm

Official: 3,000 Christians flee Iraq's Mosul
BRADLEY S. KLAPPER, AP – 11 Oct 2024

Hundreds of terrified Christian families have fled Mosul to escape extremist attacks that have increased despite months of U.S. and Iraqi military operations to secure the northern Iraqi city, political and religious officials said Saturday. Some 3,000 Christians have fled the city over the past week alone in a "major displacement," said Duraid Mohammed Kashmoula, the governor of northern Iraq's Ninevah province. He said most have left for churches, monasteries and the homes of relatives in nearby Christian villages and towns...

Read the full article - ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hwK_CSpBxsNuVUEaDuOwmSSCiqGwD93OK7600

Houses blown up as Christians flee Iraq's Mosul
Reuters – 11 Oct 2024

Militants blew up three empty Christian homes on Saturday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where more than 800 Christian families have fled in the past two days, a Christian member of parliament said. "I have been informed that three houses have been blown up. In two of them, the families were already displaced. The third, they evacuated the family and then blew up the house," parliamentarian Unadim Kanna told Iraqiya state television...

Read the full article - www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE49A36220081011?feedType=RSS&feedName;=worldNews

AMSI Condemns threatening of the Christians
Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) – 07 Oct 2024

After dropping some leaflets threatening Christians Iraqis in Mosul City, the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) condemned this insidious action and distanced itself from those who stand behind this in any pretext. In the press statement numbered 581 General Secretariat of AMSI clarified that these actions are not approved by Islam and its tolerant teachings as it is also incompatible with national unity. The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) asserted that those suspicious publications made Iraqis in certain times to be cautious on the parties and others who want to create chaos and disrupt the conditions for influential parties in the region associated with the occupation, its presence.,,

Read the full article - www.heyetnet.org/eng/mansetler/3283-amsi-condemns-threatening-of-the-christians.html

Islamic fundamentalists: "expel Christians from Mosul"
Aaia News – 09 Oct 2024

...There is no end to the bloodshed in Mosul: in less than a week, nine people have died because they were Christians. From the town in the province of Nineveh come dramatic appeals, pleading "that silence not fall" over the continuing slaughter. "A campaign is underway to drive the Christians out of the area," a source reveals to AsiaNews, "and yesterday, a car with a loudspeaker went around the streets in the neighborhood of Sukkar, ordering the Christians to leave." "Christians out of the city," the people on board were shouting, "otherwise you will be victims of more attacks." (...) The violence in Mosul in recent weeks has driven an increasing number of people to leave the city. According to estimates by local Christians, "every week more than 20 families decide to flee." This exodus has "emptied entire neighborhoods" of Christians, "to the indifference of the media and of Western governments." ...

Read the full article - www.asianews.it/?l=en&art;=13442&size;=A

Attacks on Christians in Iraqi city raise concern
KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer – 08 Oct 2024

An Iraqi archbishop expressed concern Wednesday over what he called a "campaign of killings and deportations" against Christians in the northern city of Mosul after police reported seven Christians killed in separate attacks this month. A female suicide bomber also blew herself up near government offices in Baqouba, northeast of the capital, killing 11 people, Iraqi officials said. The violence in both cities occurred despite U.S.-Iraqi operations launched over the summer aimed at routing al-Qaida in Iraq and other insurgents from remaining strongholds north of the capital...

Read the full article - www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/10/07/international/i023426D81.DTL
 

3 Christians killed in Ninewa

Ninewa, 07 October 2024 ( Voices of Iraq )

Three Christians were killed on Tuesday in two separate incidents in the city of Mosul, a police source said. “A Christian citizen and his son were killed by unknown gunmen in al-Sedeeq neighborhood in northern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq. “Unknown gunmen killed a third Christian working as a pharmacist in al-Tahrir neighborhood in eastern Mosul,” he added.

Read the full article - http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.html?refid=WH-S-13-10-2008&article;=37570

Letter to British MP Mr. Edward Leigh re: Iraq's minorities
Merry Fitzgerald, EUROPEAN TURKMEN FRIENDSHIPS – 07 Oct 2024

I read your article in the Catholic Herald about your recent visit to the north of Iraq and I would like to make some comments: The war of aggression launched on Iraq by the US and the UK in March 2024 and the illegal occupation of this country by the US-UK forces have brought complete chaos in Iraq and great sufferings to Iraq’s entire population, causing the death of over 1,270.000 Iraqis. This illegal war followed 12 years of criminal sanctions - imposed on the Iraqi people by the UN at the instigation of the US and the UK- which caused the death of more than one million innocent Iraqi civilians.This war has caused the destruction of Iraq’s infrastructure and the displacement of over 4.5 million Iraqis inside and outside the country. The US-UK occupiers in order to impose their occupation policy on the Iraqis have dismantled Iraq’s existing institutions, disbanded its army and police leaving the country without defence forces, its borders without surveillance and its population without any protection...

Read the full article - turkmenfriendship.blogspot.com/2008/10/letter-to-british-mp-mr-edward-leigh-re.html

Mosul, the relentless slaughter of Iraqi Christians
AsiaNews -  05 Oct 2024

Two new attacks yesterday against the Christian community: the owner of a clothing store and a 15-year-old boy were killed. A source for AsiaNews denounces the climate of "panic" that fills the city, and the "indifference of the media," which have passed over the slaughter "in silence."...

Read the full article - www.asianews.it/?l=en&art;=13397&size;=A#

More than 10,000 Iraqi Christians protest in Iraq's Dahuk
Middle East News – 03 Oct 2024

More than 10,000 Iraqi Christians demonstrated Thursday in the northern Dahuk province, demanding self-rule in their area and restoration of a clause in the new elections law that would guarantee their representation in provincial councils. 'The demonstrators will present an official memo to the local authorities in Dahuk province to back their efforts and help them demand the rights of our people,' Jamal Zeno, the chief of the Chaldo-Assyrian Popular Council, told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency...

Read the full article - www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1434479.html/More_than_10000_Iraqi_Christians_protest_in_Iraqs_Dahuk_

 

The Marginalization of Iraq's Minorities Was Expected

AINA - 30 Sept 2024

 

There is no doubt that Christians and other minorities are being overrepresented among Iraqi refugees. The persecution of minorities is well known and has been subject to intense debates.

 

Read the full article - http://www.aina.org/guesteds/20080930141149.htm

 

As Iraq Moves Towards Provincial Elections, Minority Sects Further Marginalized

Alternet - 29 Sept 2024

 

A new decision by the Iraqi parliament leaves Iraqi minorities with no representation in the country's provincial councils as well as the legislature. By an overwhelming majority, the parliament early this week revoked paragraph 50 from the constitution, under which Iraqi minorities were assigned a set of seats in legislative and municipal councils. The revocation has sparked mass demonstrations in areas where these minorities live, particularly in the northern Province of Nineveh, of which Mosul is the capital. Not only non-Muslim minorities are affected. The Shebeks, who are Muslim Shiites, have lost this privilege as well as the Yazidis who still pursue their secretive and traditional faith. The decision has been a blow to the minorities who make up at least 10 per cent of the Iraqi population. With paragraph 50 of the constitution revoked, these minorities will have no means left to air their voice. Christians, Yazidis, and Sabeans have almost lost the religious freedom they enjoyed under Saddam Hussein in most parts of the country. Today, these minorities make up a disproportionately high percentage of Iraqi refugees fleeing their country.

 

Read the full article - http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/100777/as_iraq_moves_towards_provincial_elections,_minority_sects_further_marginalized/

A Political Coup Against Iraq's Minorities
Assyria Council of Europe – 28 Sept 2024

Despite talks about the importance of securing rights of its minorities, Iraq is moving in the direction of minimizing the minorities' role in the political process. The new provincial elections law passed on the 24 September saw the elimination of the quota seats designated for minorities in the provincial councils in what could be best described as a political coup. Assyrians and other minorities see the passing of the new provincial elections law as a serious threat to their future presence in Iraq...

Read the full article - www.aina.org/news/20080928175840.htm

Iraqi Christians protest new election law
Associated Press – 28 Sept 2024

Iraq's prime minister Sunday sought safeguards for minorities in the mainly Muslim country as Christians protested parliament's decision to end quotas for small religious communities in ruling regional councils. Parliament last week approved a new law mandating elections in most of Iraq's 18 provinces. But the law removed a system that guaranteed seats on provincial councils for Christians and other religious minorities...

Read the full article - www.pr-inside.com/print832824.htm

Thousands of Iraqi Christians find refuge in Lebanon
Families face tough times after fleeing their homeland
Raphael Thelen, Special to The Daily Star – 25 Sept 2024

Hundred of thousand of Chaldean Christians have fled Iraq because of violent threats against their community, and thousands of those refugees have arrived in Lebanon during the last few years, searching for a better life or resettlement in other countries. "The situation of the Chaldean community in Iraq is very difficult. Many receive threats by Muslim fundamentalists and criminal gangs via telephone, get kidnapped or killed," Michel Kasdano , coordinator of the Chaldean church, told The Daily Star. The Chaldean community has lived in Iraq since the time of Christ...

Read the full article - www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ;_id=1&article;_id=96324