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Isis takes Iraq’s largest Christian town of Qaraqosh Isis takes Iraq’s largest Christian town of Qaraqosh
(about 1 hour later)
Isis has seized Iraq’s largest Christian town of Qaraqosh causing “tens of thousands of terrified” people to be displaced as people flee the area. Isis has seized Iraq’s largest Christian town of Qaraqosh causing “tens of thousands” of people to be displaced as people flee the area.
The militant group captured the town in the north of Iraq overnight after Kurdish Peshmerga troops withdrew from the area.The militant group captured the town in the north of Iraq overnight after Kurdish Peshmerga troops withdrew from the area.
The Peshmerga have been fighting the Sunni militants in the north for weeks, and have been stretched thin across several fronts in Iraq, residents told AFP. The BBC reports that the French organisation Fraternite en Irak said the commander of the Peshmerga in Qaraqosh told the town’s archbishop late on Wednesday that the Kurdish fighters would be leaving their posts, while they also retreated from nearby Christian towns including Tel Eskof and Qaramless.
Some 50,000 Christians lived in the town of Qaraqosh, which lies 19 miles to the south east of the city of Mosul, which Isis captured in June and is now its main base in the country. Displaced families from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing the violence, walk on the outskirts of Sinjar, west of Mosul.
The BBC reports that the French organisation Fraternite en Irak said that a majority of inhabitants of Nineveh province had fled as the militants took over Qaraqosh. Bishop Joseph Tomas said the Islamic militants took hold of Qaraqosh and four surrounding towns of Tilkaif, Bartella, Karamless and Alqosh.
The French group said the commander of the Peshmerga in Qaraqosh told the town’s archbishop late on Wednesday that the Kurdish fighters would be leaving their posts, while they also retreated from nearby Christian towns including Tel Eskof and Qaramless. He is based in the Kurdish-held town of Kirkuk, and added that “all Christian villages are now empty”.
"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 Sulamaniyah, told AFP. Alqosh resident Father Gabriel said that when the raids started late on Wednesday night, the Christians and other minority groups ran for their lives, with tens of thousands of people heading for the Kurdish area of northern Iraq.
“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,” he said. Some 50,000 Christians lived in the town of Qaraqosh, which lies 19 miles to the south east of the city of Mosul, which Isis captured in June and is now its main base in the country. When the militants took Mosul, they imposed ultimatums on the ethnic and religious minorities there, calling on them to convert to Islam, pay a tax or leave, risking death if they did not obey.
Pope Francis has called on world governments to take measures to protect the Christians that have been driven from their villages in Northern Iraq, and to provide them with humanitarian aid.
Appealing to the international community, the Pope called on leaders to “put an end to the humanitarian drama underway, adopt measures to protect those who are threatened by violence and assure them necessary aid, especially urgent for those who are homeless and depend on the solidarity of others.”
Additional reporting from Associated Press