Tag: Karamles

Between limbo and hope: celebrating Easter with the exiles of northern Iraq

April 13, 2017 Iraq Ankawa, IDPs, Islamic State, Karamles, Palm Sunday

Members of Karamles' Chaldean church clear up debris left after IS damaged their building, ahead of Palm Sunday 2017.

For the Christians of northern Iraq, this Easter is their third separated from their homes. But for some, it could mark the beginning of the end of their displacement, following military victories against Islamic State that have won back much of the territory the jihadists seized three years ago. “Next . . . Read More

Iraqi Christian couple despair at sight of house IS destroyed

February 14, 2017 Iraq IDPs, Islamic State, Karamles, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Tel Skuf

Almas and her husband, Hathem, stand inside the remains of their house, destroyed by IS, Jan 2017.World Watch Monitor Hathem and Almas are hoping to be among the first people to return to Karamles, a now-deserted town in the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq. “This is our town, where . . . Read More

Sifting through the debris of IS’s destruction

February 1, 2017 Iraq Bartella, Iraq, Islamic State, Karamles, Nineveh Plains, Qaraqosh

The formerly Christian towns in northern Iraq liberated from Islamic State have been “destroyed” by jihadists who used a cathedral courtyard as a shooting range, according to a lawyer who visited them. Vienna-based legal counsel Ewelina Ochab, author of Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle . . . Read More

Iraqi Christian: ‘IS made me spit on a Cross and convert to Islam’

January 18, 2017 Iraq Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Karamles, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Qaraqosh

One of the major themes explored in Martin Scorsese’s film, Silence, is the question of how to respond when faced with a choice between denying one’s faith or facing death. Christians in 17th century Japan were given this choice, and it’s the same for Christians in many parts of the . . . Read More

Devastation of liberated Iraqi Christian towns makes return home seem further away than ever

December 15, 2016 Iraq Bartella, Erbil, IDPs, Islamic State, Karamles, Kurds, Nineveh Plains, Qaraqosh, Refugees

Now the smoke has gone from the Nineveh Plain, it is clear that Islamic State fighters dealt one final, vicious blow to the Christian population before surrendering its occupied towns: by systematically setting fire to their homes, thousands have become practically uninhabitable. Suddenly, for many Christians, the prospect of returning . . . Read More

The Cross, deemed illegal by IS, returns to Iraq’s Nineveh Plain

November 1, 2016 Iraq Karamles, Nineveh Plains, Qaraqosh

There were tears, soldiers praying, priests singing. This was the moment thousands of Iraqi Christians had been waiting for: the Cross, symbol of Christ’s victory over evil, deemed illegal by IS, had returned to the Christian villages in Iraq’s Nineveh Plain. This came as news continues to emerge of more . . . Read More

More Iraqi towns ‘freed’ but Nineveh Christians not confident about safe return

October 25, 2016 Iraq Bartella, Bashiqa, Chaldeans, Islamic State, Karamles, Middle East, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Peshmerga, Qaraqosh, Tel Kaif

The heavily damaged and burnt Tahira (Immaculate) Syriac Catholic Church in Baghdeda.World Watch Monitor As prayers were offered in Syriac in front of the altar of the trashed church of Mart Shmoni in the recently freed town of Bartella, more homes where Christians used to live in Iraq’s north-eastern . . . 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

‘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

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

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