Tag: Mosul

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

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

Iraq’s ISIS survivors adjust to life in a refugee camp

September 17, 2015 Iraq Erbil, Islamic State, Mosul, Refugees, UN

As the world attempts to come to terms with the thousands of refugees escaping the horrors of war in Syria and Iraq, World Watch Monitor hears what life is like for the hundreds of families from northern Iraq who fled overnight from an invading ISIS force to settle in a makeshift camp, which has now . . . Read More

IS turns ancient Mosul church into mosque

July 14, 2015 Hasakah, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul, Ramadan, Syria

Islamic State has turned an ancient Chaldean church in Mosul, Iraq into a mosque, according to Fides. St Joseph church, which is considered to be one the oldest churches of the Chaldean denomination and overlooks the Tigris river, has been turned into the Abi Abd El-Rahman Elbilawi mosque, named after a . . . Read More

‘Fabric of Iraqi society depends on Christians’

April 15, 2015 Iraq Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul

The head of the Catholic Church in Britain said after a weekend visit to the Iraqi city of Erbil that “the presence of the Christian community is essential” for the rebuilding of Iraq’s fractured society, once the Islamic State is overthrown there. But he admitted, “There is no way the . . . Read More

Iraqi Christians still held by Islamic State ‘against their will’

February 1, 2015 Iraq Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Kirkuk, Mosul, Peshmerga, Qaraqosh, Refugees

More news has emerged about the situation of Christians who are still being detained in Islamic State after ten elderly Christians, some with disabilities, managed to escape. The group, eight men and two women, were ‘expelled’ by IS militants for refusing to convert to Islam. They spent two days travelling . . . Read More

10 more Christians flee Mosul

January 9, 2015 Iraq Chaldeans, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Kirkuk, Mosul, Peshmerga

On Jan. 7, ten elderly Chaldean Christians and Syrian Catholics arrived in Kirkuk, Iraq after Islamic State militants expelled them from Mosul for their refusal to convert to Islam. The group spent two days travelling to Kirkuk, an area now under the control of Kurdish Peshmerga Forces, after being forced . . . Read More

ISIS preparing for worldwide religious cleansing

December 22, 2014 Europe, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul, Raqqa, Syria

German author and former politician, Juergen Todenhoefer spoke with CNN after travelling into territory occupied by ISIS including Syrian cities Raqqa and Iraq’s second largest city Mosul. “I think the Islamic State is a lot more dangerous than Western leaders realize,” he said to CNN . Their main point of . . . Read More

Iraqi Christians in Jordan in need

December 16, 2014 Iraq Iraq, Islamic State, Jordan, Migrants, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Refugees

According to Agenzia Fides, there are now more than 7,000 Iraqi Christian refugees in Jordan, and funds to care for them are running low, according to Wael Suleiman, director of Caritas Jordan, a Catholic charity. “We [Caritas Jordan] find ourselves in difficulty. We support the rents of Christian families, we distribute . . . Read More

New urgency for an old idea: Nineveh

September 17, 2014 Iraq Assyrians, Baghdad, Basra, Fallujah, Islamic State, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Peshmerga, Saddam Hussein, Tel Kaif

An ancient Nineveh gate, east of Mosul.James Gordon / Flickr / Creative Commons The militant Islamist rampage across Iraq has intensified calls for a Christian “safe zone,” even as it has made the task of achieving it more difficult. The jihadists, who call their movement the “Islamic State,” have . . . Read More

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