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ISLAMIC STATE PULLS DOWN CHURCH CROSSES IN NORTHERN IRAQ AS 200,000 FLEE
August 7, 2014
The Telegraph - Islamic State jihadists who took over large areas of
northern Iraq overnight have forced thousands of Christians to flee
and occupied churches, removing crosses and destroying manuscripts,
Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako has said.
"(The Christians) have fled with nothing but their clothes, some of
them on foot, to reach the Kurdistan region," Patriarch Sako told AFP.
"This is a humanitarian disaster. The churches are occupied, their
crosses were taken down," said Sako. He added that up to 1,500
manuscripts were burnt.
The United Nations put the number of people who have fled as high
as 200,000, and said that many thousands of people trapped by the
militants on Sinjar mountain had been rescued in the past 24 hours.
"We're just receiving the information right now. We've just heard
that people over the last 24 hours have been extracted and the UN
is mobilising resources to ensure that these people are assisted
on arrival," David Swanson, a spokesman for the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told Reuters.
It is a "tragedy of immense proportions", he said.
Islamic State militants overran Qaraqosh, Iraq's largest Christian
town, after pushing back Kurdish troops across a large area of the
north of the country, fleeing residents and Christian clerics said.
Jihadists moved in overnight to claim several Christian towns, forcing
tens of thousands of people to flee, having pushed back Kurdish
peshmerga troops, who are stretched thin across several fronts in Iraq.
"I now know that the towns of Qaraqosh, Tal Kayf, Bartella and
Karamlesh have been emptied of their original population and are
now under the control of the militants," Joseph Thomas, the Chaldean
archbishop of Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah, told AFP.
"It's a catastrophe, a tragic situation. We call on the UN Security
Council to immediately intervene. Tens of thousands of terrified
people are being displaced as we speak, it cannot be described,"
the archbishop said.
The overnight advance came after the Sunni militants inflicted a
humiliating defeat on Kurdish forces in a weekend sweep in the north.
Several residents contacted by AFP confirmed that the entire area
in northern Iraq, home to a large part of the country's Christian
community, had fallen to the Islamic State jihadist group.
Tal Kayf, the home of a significant Christian community as well as
members of the Shabak Shiite minority, also emptied overnight.
http://www.horizonweekly.ca/news/details/46110
August 7, 2014
The Telegraph - Islamic State jihadists who took over large areas of
northern Iraq overnight have forced thousands of Christians to flee
and occupied churches, removing crosses and destroying manuscripts,
Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako has said.
"(The Christians) have fled with nothing but their clothes, some of
them on foot, to reach the Kurdistan region," Patriarch Sako told AFP.
"This is a humanitarian disaster. The churches are occupied, their
crosses were taken down," said Sako. He added that up to 1,500
manuscripts were burnt.
The United Nations put the number of people who have fled as high
as 200,000, and said that many thousands of people trapped by the
militants on Sinjar mountain had been rescued in the past 24 hours.
"We're just receiving the information right now. We've just heard
that people over the last 24 hours have been extracted and the UN
is mobilising resources to ensure that these people are assisted
on arrival," David Swanson, a spokesman for the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told Reuters.
It is a "tragedy of immense proportions", he said.
Islamic State militants overran Qaraqosh, Iraq's largest Christian
town, after pushing back Kurdish troops across a large area of the
north of the country, fleeing residents and Christian clerics said.
Jihadists moved in overnight to claim several Christian towns, forcing
tens of thousands of people to flee, having pushed back Kurdish
peshmerga troops, who are stretched thin across several fronts in Iraq.
"I now know that the towns of Qaraqosh, Tal Kayf, Bartella and
Karamlesh have been emptied of their original population and are
now under the control of the militants," Joseph Thomas, the Chaldean
archbishop of Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah, told AFP.
"It's a catastrophe, a tragic situation. We call on the UN Security
Council to immediately intervene. Tens of thousands of terrified
people are being displaced as we speak, it cannot be described,"
the archbishop said.
The overnight advance came after the Sunni militants inflicted a
humiliating defeat on Kurdish forces in a weekend sweep in the north.
Several residents contacted by AFP confirmed that the entire area
in northern Iraq, home to a large part of the country's Christian
community, had fallen to the Islamic State jihadist group.
Tal Kayf, the home of a significant Christian community as well as
members of the Shabak Shiite minority, also emptied overnight.
http://www.horizonweekly.ca/news/details/46110