Monthly Archives: June 2015

Christians leave Hassakeh en masse, reminiscent of Mosul in 2014 JOHN BURGER ISIS – Flag – Mujahideen Shura Council 01 © Mujahideen Shura Council© Mujahideen Shura Council Nearly 4,000 Christian families have fled the northeastern Syrian city of Hassakeh with the advance of forces of the Islamic State group, Fides reported.…

Iraqi priest Fr Douglas Bazi, who takes care of thousands of refugees forced to flee Mosul after Islamic State took over the city last year, has a simple but pointed message for Western Europe: “Wake up!” Fr Bazi, once a torture victim, was in Gozo yesterday to celebrate the feast of St Peter…

Displaced civilians from Hasakah. Photo: ARA News Qamishli, Syria – Subsequent to a major offensive by the radical group of the Islamic State (IS/ISIS) on the city of Hasakah, northeastern Syria, some 1300 Christian families have been displaced from the city, the Assyrian Network for Human Rights reported on Monday.…

Renad Mansour Through its pragmatic foreign policy, the leadership of the Kurdistan region has won trust in Washington and other capitals. In August 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama launched air strikes in Iraq against the self-proclaimed Islamic State. This decision ran counter to his presidential campaign in…

By Andrew Doran, Special to CNN Telskuf, Iraq (CNN)Safaa Elias Jajo, a Chaldean man in his 40s, stands in the wreckage of a home in Telskuf in Iraq’s Nineveh province. The home served as ISIS headquarters in this area until a U.S.-led coalition airstrike leveled it last year.…

Monica Cantilero Reuters An Iraqi Christian boy fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Mosul, stands inside the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Chaldean Church in Telkaif near Mosul, in the province of Nineveh, in this July 20, 2014 file photo. Christians have been suffering from “systemic persecution” in the Middle East…

AP News | Jun BEIRUT (AP) — Fighting between the Islamic State group and the Syrian army in the mainly Kurdish city of Hassakeh has displaced at least 30,000 people, separated families and left some children unaccompanied, a member of an international aid group said Monday.…

by John Hayward An Assyrian Christian teenager from Iraq is hoping to find asylum in the United States to avoid returning to her village in northern Iraq, which has been captured by ISIS–its church destroyed and slavers from the savage terror state on the prowl for young girls to kidnap.…

DAILY SABAH WITH ANADOLU AGENCY ISTANBUL The Umayyad Mosque, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has been seriously damaged during the civil war between President Bashar Assad’s regime and anti-government forces. Civil wars and domestic clashes in the Middle East, which has been home to some of…

Iraqi Yazidi women who fled the violence in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar. (AFP/Safin Hamed)Iraqi Yazidi women who fled the violence in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar. (AFP/Safin Hamed) More > Mayadin, Sinjar, Deir Ezzor, Rami Abdel Rahman, Zainab Bangura, United Nations…

by Olivia Dehez Some 30 people live year-round in Tur Abdin, a village set in the Wild West landscapes of rocks and dry grass, in southern Turkey – less than 100 kilometres from Syria. In Arbo, a small village near Kafro, Syriacs attend the funeral ceremony of a fellow Syriac whose body was repatriated to…

Soyana Isaac Israel is receiving treatment at Shriners Hospital Turlock PD: Once-missing teen found safe; officer arrested SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) —A teenage girl from Iraq, receiving medical treatment in Sacramento, may be forced to return home to an ISIS-occupied village because her temporary visa is set to expire.…

Catholic World News Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako has made a dramatic appeal for unity among the embattled Christians of Iraq, suggesting that three ancient churches should combine in a single patriarchate, in full communion with the Holy See. The Patriarch suggested a merger of the Chaldean Catholic Church with the Assyrian…

Catholic World News Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako has made a dramatic appeal for unity among the embattled Christians of Iraq, suggesting that three ancient churches should combine in a single patriarchate, in full communion with the Holy See.…

HomeMiddle EastIraq Tue Jun 23, 2015 2:27PM Iraqi Christians, who fled the violence in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, attend a mass for Easter celebrations in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish autonomous region, April 4, 2015. (© AFP) Members of the Takfiri ISIL militant group have blown up more than a dozen houses…

by Catholic News Service Iraqi children play outside a tent in Ainkawa, near Irbil (CNS) Cardinal Angelo Scola was joined by the Maronite Catholic patriarch on a visit to Irbil Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan, representing Pope Francis, and Cardinal Bechara Rai, the Maronite Catholic patriarch, traveled to Irbil, Iraq, to meet with Christians who…

2014-07-08 By Ed Timperlake and Robbin Laird Iraq is clearly in play. The ISIS are bent on the destruction of Iraqi Christians, and the Kurds are coming to their aide. Indeed, the Kurds have demonstrated a level of tolerance in Iraq not evident by other ethnic groups within Iraq itself.…

By Ed Timperlake and Robbin Laird As the fight against ISIS continues, and the US prepares to send more ground troops, a key problem remains: what are US objectives compared to those of the Baghdad government? Lt. General (Retired) Deptula in a recent Washington Post op ed put the problem squarely:…

BY CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE , IN: WORLD Iraqi and Syrian Christians march during a Palm Sunday procession in Beirut, Lebanon, March 29. Synods of Melkite Catholic and Maronite Catholic bishops in Lebanon called on the world’s governments to help resolve the conflicts in the region so that Christians can remain in place. (CNS photo/Wael Hamzeh,…

By Jean Guerrero Chaldeans protest the four-month imprisonment of refugees at the Otay Detention Facility, June 18, 2015. San Diego County activists are protesting a decision by U.S. immigration officials to hold in an Otay Mesa detention facility 20 Chaldeans who fled persecution in Iraq.…