Tag: Kurds

Iraqis who fled Mosul and IS flee Turkish bombing

January 19, 2016 Iraq Assyrians, Baghdad, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Louis Raphael I Sako, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, PKK, Saddam Hussein, Turkey

The Turkish air force has bombed the Assyro-Chaldean Christian village of Upper Sharanish in northern Iraq. Condemning what he called the “unjust act”, Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako urged Ankara to “respect the lives and properties of the inhabitants and not to displace them under the pretext of fighting” the Kurdish . . . Read More

Islamic State’s ‘caliphate’ shrank 14% in 2015

January 6, 2016 Afghanistan, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Mosul, Ramadi, Raqqa, Syria, Turkey, USA

Islamic State’s self-proclaimed ‘caliphate’ – the area within Syria and Iraq that the group controls – shrunk by more than 12,000 square kilometres in 2015, says . The loss of 14 per cent of its territory reduces the caliphate to 78,000 square kilometres. Main losses are large swathes of Syria . . . Read More

3 bombs kill 16 in Syrian border town

January 4, 2016 Syria Assyrians, Islamic State, Kurds, Qamishli, Syria

Bombers attacked three Christian-owned restaurants in the Syrian town of Qamishli on 30 Dec., killing at least 16 and injuring dozens, according to various independent news reports. The self-proclaimed “Islamic State” claimed responsibility, , citing the Amaq news service, which supports IS. The Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, Moran Mor . . . Read More

Erbil airport closure delays Christians leaving Iraq for Europe

December 7, 2015 Iraq Ankawa, Erbil, Islamic State, Kurds

Fr Douglas reveals news that a flight taking displaced Christians from Iraq to Slovakia is delayed, Dec 2015World Watch Monitor We know that some Eastern European countries have been specifying that they are happy to take Christians direct from Iraqi IDP camps, and months of work had started to . . . Read More

Visiting a monastery in ISIS territory

November 10, 2015 Iraq Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Mosul, Nineveh Plains

An international aid worker has shared his experiences of visiting a monastery in what is technically regarded as IS-held territory within Iraq. His blog, ISIS Territory – Smoke on the Horizon, Song in the Chapel, describes the fear he felt leaving behind the last Kurdish checkpoint and his meetings with . . . Read More

Istanbul Patriarch deplores ethnic tensions

September 11, 2015 Turkey Greek Orthodox, Istanbul, Kurds, Patriarch Bartholomew I, Turkey

As deadly violence and hate speech spiralled in Turkey this week between Turkish nationalists and its minority Kurdish community, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I has urged the nation to learn from its past ethnic tensions. “How can one part of society look at another part of society with so much . . . Read More

Birthday for a missing girl

July 17, 2015 Iraq Assyrians, Christina Abada, Islamic State, Kidnapping, Kurds

July 18 is Christina Khader Abada’s birthday. She’s 4. Her family won’t have a party for her. A soldier of the Islamic State took Christina from the arms of her mother nearly a year ago, and nothing has been heard about the girl since. “My biggest joy would be when . . . Read More

Forced out by ISIS, Iraq’s Christians start over

June 10, 2015 Iraq Greek Orthodox, Islamic State, Jordan, Kurds, Refugees

World Watch Monitor One year ago, Mosul fell to militants belonging to a Sunni Muslim movement calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. Thousands of Christians and other religious minorities, threatened with execution, fled. These are the stories of two who have found refuge, one in . . . Read More

Bishop refutes alleged ‘revenge’ beheading

June 1, 2015 Syria Aleppo, Assyrians, Hasakah, Islamic State, Khabur, Kurds, Syria

The Catholic Bishop of Aleppo has rejected reports of the alleged “revenge” beheading of an Islamic State jihadist by an Assyrian Christian soldier in northeast Syria as “unreliable and unverifiable” rumors. According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), an unnamed fighter captured a non-Syrian jihadist last week . . . Read More

Syrian villages ‘liberated’ from Islamic State

May 22, 2015 Syria Iraq, Islamic State, Khabur, Kurds, Syria

All the villages along the Khabour River invaded by Islamic State miilitants three months ago have been liberated, according to reports given to the Catholic News Service (CNS). “This is very happy news,” Father Emanuel Youkhana, of Christian Aid Program Northern Iraq, told CNS. But he cautioned Christian villagers from . . . Read More

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