Islamic
State militants seized control of the "Christian capital of Iraq,”
Qaraqosh, and nearby Christian villages last night. The land grab sent has sent
an estimatedone-fourth
of Iraq's remaining Christians fleeing.
"An
exodus, a real via crucis ... [Christians] are walking on
foot in Iraq's searing summer heat towards [salvation in] the Kurdish cities of
Erbil, Duhok and Soulaymiyia, the sick, the elderly, infants and pregnant women
among them," a regional Christian leader told AsiaNews.
"They are facing a humanitarian
catastrophe and a
real risk of genocide. They need food, water and shelter."
Qaraqosh,
Iraq's most-populous
Christian city at
50,000 people, is in the province
of Ninevah, 18 miles southeast of Mosul, where CT recently reported the Islamist
takeover of
Iraq's second-largest city. The move brings IS (formerly ISIS) on theborder
of Kurdish territory. (The Telegraph maps where Christians are concentrated in Iraq in relation to other religious
groups, and The Guardian mapswhere
the militants have control of the region.)
Bishop
Joseph Tomas, of the Kurdish city Kirkuk, said the IS offensive started on
Wednesday with attacks on Qaraqosh and four other villages: Tilkaif, Bartella,
Karamless, and Alqosh. The militants held complete control of the villages by
Thursday, reports the Associated Press.
“All
Christian villages are now empty,” said Bishop Tomas. Already, IS militants
have taken down crosses on churches and burned church manuscripts, according to
the BBC.
The AP
reports that IS has
also overtaken the Mosul Dam, Iraq’s largest dam and a
central resource for the country’s water and power.
As IS
militants continue their sweep of northern Iraq toward the capital of the
Kurdish region, tens of thousands of Christians are on the run, trying to avoid
the IS ultimatum given in Mosul and other areas: convert, pay a protection tax,
leave, or die.
Thousands
of Iraqis fled to the mountains after the predominantly Yazidi (another
religious minority) town of Sinjar fell, where they have no food and water.
Open Doors reports that 45
children have already died of thirst as Kurdish troops have no way of getting to
the stranded refugees.
Pope
Francis has
appealed to the
international community to aid Iraqi Christians as they flee the harsh
conditions:
“[O]ur
brothers and sisters are persecuted, they are pushed out, forced to leave their
homes without the opportunity to take anything with them,” said Pope Francis,
according to the statement. “To these families and to these people I would like
to express my closeness and my steadfast prayer. Dearest brothers and sisters
so persecuted, I know how much you suffer, I know that you are deprived of
everything. I am with you in your faith in Him who conquered evil!”
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