Tag: Nineveh Plains

One ‘Christian’ town freed en route to Mosul

October 21, 2016 Iraq Assyrians, Bartella, Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Qaraqosh

As anti-Islamic State (IS) forces continue their operations to recapture Iraq’s second city of Mosul, Christians from towns around it have welcomed the retaking of their two-years’ deserted homes. According to sources monitoring the situation on the ground, Bartella, a town with a significant Christian presence prior to the IS . . . Read More

IS blows up Assyrian church near Mosul

October 10, 2016 Iraq Assyrians, Iraq, Islamic State, Karamles, Mosul, Nineveh Plains

An Assyrian church in Iraq’s north-eastern Nineveh Plains was on Sunday (9 October) the latest to be destroyed by “the Islamic State” (IS), as the jihadist group continues to face losses on the ground. St. Barbara Fouq Attal (on-the-Hill) was blown up when IS fighters “detonated a number of explosive . . . Read More

Iraqi MPs reject ‘safe areas’ for Christians

September 28, 2016 Iraq Assyrians, Genocide, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Shia, Sunni, Yazidis

A majority of Iraq’s Members of Parliament have rejected any proposals to set aside safe areas for Christians and other indigenous minorities in the country’s Nineveh Plains, once the province is liberated from the “Islamic State” (IS). “The Parliament has voted to keep Nineveh’s provincial boundaries as they were prior . . . Read More

When Mosul is freed, Christians may face a new crisis

September 23, 2016 Iraq Islamic State, Kurds, Nineveh Plains, Refugees

The eventual liberation of Mosul, Iraq, from the so-called Islamic State will end one crisis for dislocated Christians only to create a new one, a religious-freedom expert says. Planning documents drawn up by the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government anticipate that driving IS out of Iraq’s second city will create a . . . Read More

‘Face of displaced Iraqi Christians’ is ordained

September 22, 2016 Iraq Ankawa, Baghdad, Erbil, IDPs, Iraq, Islamic State, Karamles, Louis Raphael I Sako, Nineveh Plains

The ordination of Martin Baani, a Catholic priest who became one of the when he dedicated himself to the needs of thousands of people in displacement camps, has been celebrated as a revival of Christianity in the Middle East, reports . Louis Sako, Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Baghdad, who performed . . . Read More

Autonomous Nineveh ‘would preserve Christians and secure West’s interests’

September 14, 2016 Iraq Ankawa, Islamic State, Nineveh Plains

A “protected area” should be set aside for minorities, including Christians, in Iraq’s north-east Nineveh plains after the ‘Islamic State’ has been defeated, a US advocacy group has argued. The group, In Defense of Christians (IDC), made the suggestion at the National Convention (7-9 September) in Washington DC. IDC hopes . . . Read More

Frontier town sees first Communion despite IS

August 18, 2016 Iraq Alqosh, Assyrians, Chaldeans, IDPs, Iraq, Louis Raphael I Sako, Nineveh Plains

A Christian town some 50km north of the Islamic State’s Iraq stronghold of Mosul has celebrated its first Communion Mass, completing the initiation of a hundred boys and girls in the faith. In what was described as a “historic moment”, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako presided over the ceremony . . . Read More

Iraq: 2 years since Nineveh fell to IS, displaced Christians pray for ‘liberation’

August 8, 2016 Iraq Islamic State, Karamles, Kurds, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Qaraqosh, Refugees

It’s been two years since thousands of Christians fled their homes in Mosul and the Nineveh Plains to run away from the advancing armies of the so-called Islamic State. But now, as Iraqi forces plan to retake Mosul, the Christians are praying they will soon be able to return home. . . . Read More

2 years after IS drove them from their homes, Iraqi Christians ‘are still in survival mode’, bishop says

August 1, 2016 Iraq Ankawa, Assyrians, Islamic State, Nineveh Plains, Peshmerga, Refugees

U.S. State Department Deputy Secretary Antony Blinken at the Washington Conference on Threats to Religious and Ethic Minorities Under ISIL, 29 July in Washington, D.C.Video capture / U.S. Office of Policy Planning and Public Diplomacy Two years after being driven from their homeland by the so-called Islamic State, displaced . . . Read More

Iraq’s Christians ‘could be gone in 5 years’

May 16, 2016 Iraq Assyrians, Chaldeans, Iraq, Islamic State, Jizya, Kirkuk, Middle East, Mosul, Nineveh Plains

ISIS’ jihadist actions mean Christians could disappear from Iraq in five years, says an Iraqi Assyrian priest. Fr. Martin Hermis Dawood told the Telegraph the latest phase of Islamic extremism has only precipitated the trend of Christians exiting their ancestral lands. “Everyone sees himself outside Iraq in a few years. . . . Read More

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