Tag: Nineveh Plains

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

Syrian Christians have wedding despite IS threat

November 17, 2014 Syria Islamic State, Kurds, Nineveh Plains, Qamishli, Syria

Just 15 miles away from territory now occupied by Islamic State, the Syrian Christians of Qamishli gathered in the church of the Holy Virgin for the wedding of Malek Aissa and Ilana Hacho. At the wedding priests told the Independent how IS has brought their church to its knees. The . . . Read More

Assyrians on patrol

October 8, 2014 Iraq Assyrians, Iraq, Islamic State, Nineveh Plains, Peshmerga

When World Watch Monitor on the renewed fervor for the creation of a Christian-governed province in Iraq’s Nineveh Plains, we noted how some Christian refugees from the violence of the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” had formed paramilitary units to help Kurdish Peshmerga forces. Now an up-close look at two Assyrian Iraqis . . . 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

Iraqi Erbil priest: “We aim to treat our refugees as guests”

September 15, 2014 Iraq Ankawa, Catholics, Chaldeans, Erbil, Nineveh Plains

The so-far ‘safe’ city of Erbil in Kurdish-governed north-eastern Iraq has seen thousands of Christian refugees arrive over the last few months with many relying on the church for sanctuary. But how are local churches bearing up to the influx? In the Mar Elia Chaldean Catholic church in the suburb . . . Read More

Iraq: last Christians to leave Bartella

September 5, 2014 Iraq Ankawa, Bartella, Dohuk, Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Nineveh Plains

Rev. Yacoub Saad ShamasCourtesy Open Doors International The last Christians have fled the northern Iraqi town of Bartella. Six babies were born during the difficult journey east to Erbil, a city under Kurdish control and still known to be safe for Christians. The church group was led to safety . . . Read More

A timeline of ISIS terror

August 15, 2014 Iraq Islamic State, Nineveh Plains

In June, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a splinter group of al-Qaeda known as ISIS, began an offensive across northern Iraq. It first seized Mosul, the country’s second-largest city, and a handful of smaller towns. Tens of thousands of Iraqis, many of them Christian, have fled their . . . Read More

Mosul’s two kidnapped Chaldean nuns released

July 15, 2014 Iraq Catholics, Chaldeans, Churches, Dohuk, Europe, Islamic State, Kidnapping, Louis Raphael I Sako, Mosul, NATO, Nineveh Plains

Update (15 July) Two kidnapped nuns who managed an orphanage for girls in Mosul, and two women and a boy, who were kidnapped on 28 June have been released. According to ankawa.com no ransom was paid for the release of the five Assyrian victims who are in good health and . . . Read More

Iraq: Christian affairs adviser hurt

May 10, 2013 Iraq Iraq, Mosul, Nineveh Plains

The adviser on Christian affairs to the Governor of Nineveh province in northern Iraq, Maajid Ibrahim Hannaa, has been injured in a suicide bombing near Mosul, which also killed three of his bodyguards.

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