Church bombed in Mosul

The violent attacks on Assyrian Chaldean Christians in the north-Iraqi town of Mosul continue. Information received by the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) show that in spite of the top security level for Christian institutions the Maskanta church in the south of the town was bombed on Tuesday. The door of the church was destroyed but nobody was hurt. In the previous two weeks at least twelve Christians have been murdered.

By Wednesday evening 2351 Christian families had fled from Mosul as a result of the planned terror against members of their religious community according to information received from the Christian Minister of Finance of the autonomous north-Iraqi federal state of Kurdistan, Sarkis Agajan. They have been seeking refuge in villages and small towns on the nearby Nineveh Plains and in Iraqi Kurdistan. In the Nineveh Plains the Christians, together with the Moslem and Yezidi Kurds and the small ethnic group of the Shabak, make up the majority of the population.

It has been reported in the media that on Wednesday the second in-command of the terror network Al Kaida, the Moroccan Abu Kaswarah, was killed in an exchange of fire between US troops and Al Kaida units. Four members of the terror group „Islamic State of Iraq” have been arrested by the Iraqi police. They are charged with being responsible for attacks on Christians in Mosul, stated General Khalid Abdul Sattar, the official speaker of the Iraqi army in Mosul.