Tag: Islamic State

Philippines: Marawi liberated but root cause of extremism remains

October 20, 2017 Philippines Abu Sayyaf, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Islamic State, Marawi, Maute, Mindanao, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, Southeast Asia

Soldiers on a military vehicle are seen on liberated but battle damaged street in Marawi City on 17 October. (Photo: Getty Images)

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte declared “Marawi City liberated from the terrorist influence” on Tuesday (17 October) after the military killed two of the ring leaders behind the five-month assault on the city, but a religious freedom expert has warned the “killing of militant leaders does not destroy the fighters behind . . . Read More

Christians on alert as Iraqi forces take over Nineveh Plains

October 18, 2017 Iraq Bartella, Bashiqa, Iraq, Islamic State, Nineveh Plains, Peshmerga, Saddam Hussein

Christian returnees have lunch together in Bashiqa, August 2017. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Christians who have returned to the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq, three years after fleeing Islamic State militants, are on high alert now Iraqi forces have retaken some of the disputed region from Kurdish forces. Father Poulos, one of the priests in the town of Bashiqa, near Mosul, told World . . . Read More

UN ‘overlooked’ IS crime of forced displacement

October 17, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Genocide, Iraq, Islamic State, Middle East, Rex Tillerson, Syria, UN, Yazidis

Iraqi Christians ask the international community for help as they are facing annihilation by Islamic State. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Campaigners for Christian and Yazidi victims of the Islamic State group welcomed the UN’s decision last month to recognise the Islamic State group’s crimes as “genocide”, but human rights advocate Ewelina Ochab questions why “forced displacement” wasn’t included. The UN Security Council voted unanimously to create an investigative team to . . . Read More

Iraqi-Kurdish violence could push Christians who survived IS ‘to flee for good’

October 17, 2017 Iraq Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Karamles, Kurds, Nineveh Plains, Peshmerga, Syria

Fresh large-scale fighting in the disputed territory between Iraq and its Kurdish region could further drain the region of Christians – only months after the military defeat of Islamic State persuaded some to return to their homes, experts have warned. Small numbers of Iraqi Christians are gradually returning to the towns . . . Read More

Christians returning to former IS-occupied Karamles ‘increasing day to day’

October 12, 2017 Iraq Chaldeans, Iraq, Islamic State, Karamles, Kurds, Mosul, Nineveh Plains

It’s been a year since Karamles was liberated from Islamic State group (IS) militants. It was one of the Nineveh Plains towns east of Mosul that fell to IS as it advanced across northern Iraq in August 2014. The occupation forced Christian families to flee for safer cities like Erbil, . . . Read More

Coptic priest killed in Cairo

October 12, 2017 Egypt Beni Suef, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Salafism, Samaan Shehata, Upper Egypt

A Coptic priest has been stabbed to death in Cairo, reports Egypt Independent. Samaan Shehata, who is from the Beni Suef governorate south of Cairo, was visiting the capital for a conference when a man reportedly stopped his vehicle and then attacked him with a cleaver. The attacker, who has . . . Read More

IS recaptures ‘symbol of interfaith coexistence’ Syrian town

October 6, 2017 Syria Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Jacques Mourad, Qaryatain, Syria

Islamic State (IS) jihadists have regained control of a town believed to be home to hundreds of Christian families. The group launched a surprise attack on the town of Al-Qaryatain, which was being guarded by government forces, early on Sunday. The town, in the central province of Homs, is known . . . Read More

‘Mixed feelings’ for families after IS cameraman reveals where beheaded Copts were buried

October 3, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Anba Macarius, Copts, Islamic State, Libya, Minya, Muslim Brotherhood, Upper Egypt

The families of the 20 Egyptian Christians beheaded on a beach in Libya in 2015 say they have “mixed feelings” after the cameraman who filmed the beheadings reportedly told the authorities where the bodies were buried. Coptic news site Watani spoke to the families of 13 of the murdered Christians, . . . Read More

Philippines: Islamic group vows to help Catholics with Marawi’s rebuilding

October 2, 2017 Philippines Abu Sayyaf, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Catholics, Islamic State, Marawi, Maute, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Philippines

The siege of the city of Marawi in Mindanao by Islamists one year ago, displaced many people. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A programme launched by the Catholic Church, aimed at rebuilding the city of Marawi in the southern Philippines after months of fighting between Islamist groups and the military, has received support from the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. According to AsiaNews, the rebel group is . . . Read More

Latest attack on Copts in Egypt: newborn baby’s throat slit

October 2, 2017 Egypt Asyut, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Upper Egypt

Egyptian police have charged a Coptic mother with the murder of her newborn baby, though she says her baby was killed by intruders who entered her home and took her baby from her arms. Azza Gamal, 27, was home alone with her two-year-old twin girls Mariam and Martha, and baby . . . Read More

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