Displaced Iraqi Christians await return to Mosul with bated breath
By Gilgamesh Nabeel and Ammar Al Shamary, RNS:
The Rev. Martin Banni, a Chaldean Catholic priest, grabbed the Eucharist, the church’s official documents and a few personal items ahead of the Islamic State fighters’ assault on Karemlash, a town 18 miles southeast of Mosul, two years ago.
More than 100,000 Christians from the area had already left. The archbishop of Mosul begged them to flee, too.
“They (Kurdish fighters) left us alone, and we were few in number with no weapons, and we could do nothing to face the Islamic State,” said Banni. “We ran.”
As Iraqi forces begin the long-awaited offensive to retake Mosul and neighboring towns from the Islamic State group this week, Iraqi Christians on the Nineveh plain hope their time in exile is soon coming to an end.
“I have not slept – I stay awake all night following the news,” said Abu Adrian, a teacher in Alqosh, a mountainous Catholic holdout 31 miles north of Mosul. “We hope to see our towns liberated as soon as possible to enable our people to return to their hometowns and homes after this long struggle.”
Alqosh escaped Islamic State control. And since 2014, the town has played host to around 600 Christian families on the run from persecution farther south.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
