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Isis takes Iraq’s largest Christian town as residents told – 'leave, convert or die' Isis takes Iraq’s largest Christian town as residents told – 'leave, convert or die'
(about 3 hours later)
Christians in Iraq are being forced to flee their homes as Islamic State militants continued their seemingly unstoppable advance across the country. Christians from the town of Qaraqosh were fleeing today after it was taken by fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) on Wednesday night.
In an offensive that has seen Isis strengthen their foothold near the Kurdish region, residents of Qaraqosh, Iraq's biggest Christian town, are now threatened with the demands the Sunni militants have made in other captured areas - leave, convert to Islam or face death. The town had previously been a safe haven for those fleeing Mosul and for those hoping Christianity had a future in the country. “Before we thought we could stay. But now, there is no way Christians can go back to Iraq,” says Abu Maykel, a 29-year-old clerk who fled the village last week.
The militant group said in a statement on its Twitter account that its fighters had seized 17 towns and targets, the strategic Mosul dam on the Tigris River and a military base in an offensive that began at the weekend and would continue. He hoped he could maybe remain in his ancestral homeland, but had to reconsider when Isis started to close in on Qaraqosh, a Christian village of 50,000 people. The town had been cut off from water and electricity ever since Isis took Mosul. Food had been hard to come by and distant shelling constant, but he remained.
However, two witnesses told Reuters news agency that Islamic State fighters had hoisted the group's black flag over the dam, which could allow the militants to flood major cities or cut off significant water supplies and electricity, and local residents told reporters that the Kurdish forces had been forced out of the area. However, 10 days ago, the shelling intensified. “It was less than a kilometre away. Just the sounds of it scared my wife and children,” Abu Maykel explains. The family decided to leave, joining an exodus which has further weakened Iraq’s Christian population.
In an online statement posted by the The Islamic State on Thursday, the group claimed they had taken control of the dam and vowed to continue "the march in all directions," adding that it will not "give up the great Caliphate project."
Halgurd Hekmat, a spokesman for the Peshmerga, said that clashes around the dam are ongoing and he does not know who is in control at this point in time.
Isis captured Qaraqosh overnight after Kurdish Peshmerga troops withdrew from the area.
The BBC has reported 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.
Displaced families from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing the violence, walk on the outskirts of Sinjar, west of Mosul.Displaced families from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing the violence, walk on the outskirts of Sinjar, west of Mosul.
Bishop Joseph Tomas said the Islamic militants took hold of Qaraqosh and four surrounding towns of Tilkaif, Bartella, Karamless and Alqosh. On Wednesday night, his fears were confirmed as overstretched Kurdish Peshmerga forces left their posts and the town, as well as a string of neighbouring Christian villages, fell to Isis.
He is based in the Kurdish-held town of Kirkuk, and added that “all Christian villages are now empty”. Under Isis rule, Christians face a stark choice: convert or die. “I was given three days to decide whether to become Muslim, pay jizya – a special tax imposed on Christians under Islamic rule – or leave,” says Khalil Touma, a 43-year-old driver from Mosul. Adamant that Christians should have to pay no such tax in Iraq and afraid that they might come back later and demand more, Mr Touma chose to leave for Lebanon. In the last month, every other Iraqi Christian has also left Mosul, which was once home to a Christian population of 60,000.
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. An Isis-issued ultimatum to Christians remaining in Mosul expired on 19 July. Houses belonging to Christians were daubed with the letter “N” – short for Nasare – a Muslim term for Christians which derives from Nazareth, the home town of Jesus. “It’s like being marked with an ‘X’,” said Haitham Hikmat Hermez, 46, a driver who fled.
France’s foreign minister Laurent Fabius has called for the United Nations Security Council to hold an emergency meeting over Isis’s advances on Thursday. Properties were confiscated and given to Muslims. Those leaving were not allowed to take much with them. Refugees tell stories of wedding rings being confiscated, some even being cut off with fingers attached to them. They share videos of churches, such as the tomb of Jonah – of Jonah and the Whale fame – being bombed. All are certain there is no future for them in Iraq.
Mr Fabius said: "Faced with the seriousness of the situation, France requests an emergency meeting over the situation in Iraq after Islamic State militants seized the country’s largest Christian city." Today it was reported that Washington was considering launching air strikes against Isis and providing direct humanitarian relief to Iraqi religious minorities.
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. There has been concern about the exodus of Iraqi Christians from the church in the UK. Andrew White, Anglican Vicar in Baghdad, said: “It looks as if the end could be very near,” for Christians in Iraq during a call with Radio 4’s Today on 26 July. On Wednesday, the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales urged for prayers and an end to “the violent persecution that threatens to extinguish the Christian community” in Iraq, while Pope Francis 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.
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.”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; Reuters But priests here feel that not enough is being done by the West. “All I hear is silence,” says Father George, an Assyrian priest struggling to take care of 40 families that have registered at his church so far. “Where are the States? Where is the UN? Until now, they have done nothing!”
France’s offer of asylum to Iraqi Christians horrifies him, as it does most of Lebanon’s clergy. The country, with its own flailing Christian minority, feels Christians belong in the Middle East. “They should stay here, this is their land” says Father George.