Tag: Islamic State

Attack badly damages church in northeast Syria

July 22, 2016 Syria Assyrians, Churches, Islamic State, Qamishli, Syria

An Assyrian Orthodox church was attacked Monday in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, resulting in extensive damage to its interior, local sources said. “Anonymous gunmen stormed the St. Charnel Church for Assyrian Orthodox in the Watwatiyah district of Qamishli in the midnight on Monday, and destroyed its contents,” a . . . Read More

Iraq’s Mosul Archbishop had to pay ‘protection money’ before his 2008 kidnap and death

July 21, 2016 Iraq Al-Qaeda, Iraq, Islamic State, Jizya, Kidnapping, Mosul, Quran, Saddam Hussein

The Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, who was murdered by militias in 2008, paid protection money to safeguard his clergy for years before his kidnapping and death, an aide has told World Watch Monitor. Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was abducted in February 2008 from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which . . . Read More

US ‘indifferent’ to oppressed Christians

July 12, 2016 Genocide, Iraq, Islamic State, Syria, USA, Yazidis

The United States government is afraid to work directly with persecuted Christians in places like Iraq and Syria lest it be deemed a “crusader army”, according to a leading American religious rights advocate. Up until the day before the U.S. State Department declared the atrocities of the so-called Islamic State . . . Read More

Islamic State kills priest in Sinai

July 1, 2016 Egypt Copts, Egypt, El-Arish, Islamic State, Minya, Mohamed Morsi, Sinai

A Coptic Orthodox priest was shot dead yesterday morning (30 June) in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula by Islamist militants. Fr. Raphael Moussa, 46, was shot four times in the head from a passing taxi as he stood next to his car in Arish, the capital of northern Sinai. The priest was . . . Read More

5 killed in suicide attacks in Lebanese village

June 27, 2016 Lebanon Hezbollah, Islamic State, Lebanon, Migrants, Refugees, Sunni, Syria

At least five people were killed and 15 wounded in suicide bomb attacks early on Monday in the predominantly Christian village of Qaa, northern Lebanon – on a road linking its Bekaa valley to Syria. Four bombers blew themselves up on Qaa’s streets starting at 1am GMT. No group has . . . Read More

Iraq: Why Najiba can’t go home

June 9, 2016 Iraq Dohuk, Islamic State, Mosul, Tel Skuf

Najiba in her portacabin – her home as an IDP for the last two years, 2016World Watch Monitor Two years on from Mosul falling to Islamic State, World Watch Monitor hears from Najiba, a woman forced to flee her home on the frontline of fighting between the jihadist group . . . Read More

Is Iraq’s media helping ISIS?

June 7, 2016 Iraq Islamic State

Iraq’s media may have unwillingly assisted the so-called Islamic State in spreading its gruesome propaganda releases, . He says many of Iraq’s media outlets have “failed, to varying degrees, to exercise the due level of editorial diligence” and “sometimes ended up unwillingly acting as a force multiplier to allow IS . . . Read More

Another Christian killed in Bangladesh

June 6, 2016 Bangladesh Bangladesh, Catholics, Converts, Islamic State, Minorities

A Christian grocer has been killed in Bangladesh, the latest in a string of violent attacks against minorities that have left more than 40 dead in the last three years. IS claimed responsibility for the murder through its Amaq news agency, according to US-based SITE monitoring, saying it was “part . . . 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

IS destroys Christian landmark in Mosul

April 27, 2016 Iraq Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul, Qaryatain, Syria

The ‘Islamic State’ has completely destroyed another historic Christian landmark in an area under its control, this time in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Quoting “local residents,” “the terrorists … blew the Clock Church fully after booby-trapping it from all sides and the evacuation of nearby houses in the . . . Read More

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