Tag: Baghdad

Iraqi Christians ask: Where were our Kurdish protectors when IS came?

November 22, 2016 Iraq Assyrians, Baghdad, Erbil, IDPs, Islamic State, Jordan, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Peshmerga, Qaraqosh, Refugees, Tel Kaif

A young girl in a camp in Levo, northern Iraq, holds up a picture of the Virgin Mary and Jesus. One question that still angers many of the Christians who fled northern Iraq as jihadists from Islamic State (IS) advanced on their towns and villages is, “Where were the Kurdish . . . Read More

Under the shadow of IS: Iraqi Christians tell of crucifixions, torture, sex slavery

November 21, 2016 Iraq Baghdad, Batnaya, Islamic State, Jordan, Kurds, Mosul, Qaraqosh, Refugees

Islamic State jihadists hung Karlus, 29, from the ceiling of the jail he was held in, by a rope attached to his left foot. As blood poured from his foot, they beat and kicked him, rubbing salt into his wounds.ADF International Islamic State (IS) jihadists hung Karlus, a 29-year-old . . . Read More

Run over by US tank, run out of his home by IS: Iraqi monk’s own experience helps others

September 27, 2016 Iraq Baghdad, Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Qaraqosh

First he was run over by a US tank, then an invading Islamic State militia forced him to abandon his monastery in northern Iraq. Raeed, a monk from Qaraqosh – Iraq’s largest Christian town – had to flee and set up a temporary monastery in a displacement camp in Erbil. . . . 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

In violence-racked Baghdad, the few Christians still there struggle to cope

September 6, 2016 Iraq Baghdad, Iraq, Islamic State, Ramadan

At the height of its scorching summer, Iraq saw its worst attack since the Allied Forces ousted Saddam in 2003. Some 324 people lost their lives when a van exploded in the bustling al-Karada neighbourhood of Baghdad – during Islam’s holy month of Ramadan. The 3 July destruction claimed by . . . Read More

Iraqi Christian militia fighting ISIS

April 11, 2016 Iraq Baghdad, Iraq, Islamic State, Nineveh Plains

A group of Christians in Iraq has formed its own militia to defend themselves against the so-called Islamic State, . The Babylon Brigade of the Iraq Christian Resistance, headquartered in Baghdad, is the only Christian militia among about 30 Shia and Sunni Muslim outfits that have sprung up over the . . . Read More

Iraq’s Christian homes ‘grab’ continues

February 24, 2016 Iraq Baghdad, Iraq, Islamic State, Louis Raphael I Sako, Nineveh Plains

Homes and businesses left behind by Iraq’s Christians are being illegally taken, as hostile forces continue to scrape off the last vestiges of two millennia of Christian presence in the country. “ISIS has displaced 120,000 Christians from Mosul and the Nineveh Plains, destroying monasteries, churches and homes to erase their memory. . . . Read More

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

Christian women in Baghdad face intimidation to veil

December 18, 2015 Iraq Baghdad, Basra, Hijab, Women

The offensive poster is aimed squarely at Christian women The few Christians still holding out in Baghdad have found themselves on the receiving end of another barrage of intimidation. Posters appeared on the morning of 13 Dec. – a Sunday – near Christian places of worship with a message . . . Read More

Iraqi Patriarch challenges ‘identity law’

November 11, 2015 Iraq Baghdad, Children, Converts, Erbil, Iraq, Louis Raphael I Sako, Minorities, Yazidis

The Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Iraq renewed his opposition this week to an article in the nation’s new national laws requiring minority-faith children to become Muslims if one parent converts to Islam. Describing the new law as both unconstitutional and “unacceptable,” Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako has called on President . . . Read More

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