Ekmeleddin Ihasanoglul, who heads the OIC, said the violence in Mosul was "unprecedented in the history of Iraq" and called upon the Iraqi authorities to "prosecute the culprits who are behind these acts".

Ali al-Dabbagh, a government spokesman, said a cabinet-level delegation would soon be sent to Mosul.

"The cabinet stressed the need to move quickly to support the security effort with intensive military operations to restore security and order in Mosul and to reassure citizens," he said in a statement.

Government response

Yunadim Kanna, an Iraqi Christian legislator, said more than 1,500 families had left following recent killings of Christians, but that the situation had calmed in recent days.

"We expect these areas to be controlled, and the families to return to their homes in coming days," he said.

Kanna met Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, a Shia Muslim, along with Christian officials on Monday.

The targeted violence in Mosul has brought renewed attention to the plight of Iraq's Christians, who number in about 800,000 people.

Clergy targeted

Since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, members of the Christian clergy have been targeted and a number of churches bombed.

The Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul was kidnapped in February and his body was found two weeks later.

Although the Iraqi authorities have yet to publicly announce who they believe is behind the campaign of violence, many believe it is the work of al-Qaeda.

But some Christians have placed the blame on other elements in the city - home to Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen - saying there is a systematic campaign to oust them from the city.

Kanna, like other Christians, said he hinted that there might be government involvement.

"I don't want to accuse anyone, but I am saying that [those carrying out attacks] are wearing police uniforms," he said.

The US has also spoken out against the attacks, with a statement from the embassy saying the killings are the work of "terrorists"

Exodus of Christians as killers step up religious cleansing in Iraq

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article4938450.ece

14-10-2008

As the family of Iraqi Christians sat down for dinner, a group of gunmen forced their way into the house. “Ten or 12 men swarmed into my home like bees,” the grandmother of the family told The Times. “They ordered us to stand up and raise our hands.

“They put a bomb in the living room ... and forced us outside. About ten minutes later the house was blown up.”

This story of violence against Christians is one of many to emerge over the past fortnight from Mosul, a flashpoint city in northern Iraq. At least 13 Christians have been killed in that period and fear of further attacks has prompted 1,200 families to flee to nearby villages, convents, monasteries and even farther afield to Iraq's Kurdish region to the north or to Baghdad in the south.

The Government has pledged to curb the violence, sending 2,500 additional police to the city — already the focus of a security operation in May that has so far failed to bring results. The extra forces were designed to assure the Christians of the Government’s commitment to their security and protection, said Ali al-Dabbagh, the Government’s representative.

Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, has ordered the formation of a committee to investigate the problem. Yesterday the UN expressed concern at the recent violence against Mosul’s Christian community.

Some Christians blame al-Qaeda for the attacks while others speculate that Kurdish elements might be involved as part of a political ploy to coerce minority sects into supporting Kurdish parties before forthcoming provincial elections. This allegation is strongly denied by the Kurdish authorities.

The 69-year-old grandmother whose house, a two-storey building with orange trees in the garden, was destroyed blamed Kurdish paramilitaries. “I suspect they were Peshmerga [armed Kurdish fighters] because their Arabic was broken and they looked like Kurds,” the woman said. She, her husband, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren have fled to a village outside Mosul after the attack on Saturday. Two other houses in their neighbourhood were also destroyed.

Fuad Hussein, chief of staff for Masoud Barzani, president of the largely autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region, rejected the idea that Kurdish forces had played a part in any violence against Christians in Mosul.

“That is a campaign conducted by Baathists as well as other terrorist elements in Iraq who are trying to sour the good relationship between the Kurds and the Christians,” he said.

“Every time there is a campaign against Christians anywhere else in Iraq proper ... they come towards Kurdistan for a safe haven.”

Yonadam Kanna, one of only two Iraqi Christians in parliament, said that al-Qaeda or foreign elements with a political agenda were the likely suspects. “Al-Qaeda is targeting everyone in the country, especially non-Muslims,” he said.

Mr Kanna met Mr al-Maliki at the weekend to discuss the problems in Mosul. “[The violence] is very well organised,” he said.

The house bombing is just one in a string of incidents suffered by the Mosul grandmother, who was too afraid to let her name be published. Her nephew was shot dead in front of his children a year ago and two of her sons have been forced to flee abroad.

“Christians in Mosul cannot leave their house easily. We look like hippies when we go outside because we have to cover ourselves [with a headscarf],” she said. “Christians cannot walk easily in the street. Wherever they find a Christian they would kidnap him and take his money.” Targeted attacks against Christians, who comprise only about 2 per cent of Iraq's population, erupted after the US-led invasion in 2003. Churches were blown up and individuals killed, forcing thousands of Christians to leave the country or flee to the Kurdish north. Mosul initially escaped much of the trouble but Christians in the city say that they have also started to suffer in the past year. In February, Paulos Faraj Raho, the Archbishop of Mosul, was kidnapped and killed.

“Things are not so good in Mosul,” said Shlemon Wirduni, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Chaldean Patriarch in Baghdad, who is in contact with churches in the city.

“Today is a little better than before because of the arrival of these new government forces,” he said. “The families just want peace and security so that they can return to their homes.”

Christianity has a long history in Iraq, with Assyrian and Chaldean Catholics prospering in the ancient city of Ninevah, upon which Mosul was built, as well as in the south of the country. Mosul became a melting pot of ethnicities, comprising Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, including Muslims, Christians and other minority sects.

They co-existed peacefully until the 2003 invasion when al-Qaeda began to ferment a presence in the city.

A number of attempts to bring security to Mosul failed to achieve lasting success, making it one of the most dangerous parts of Iraq, although US forces based there say that attacks have reduced significantly compared with a year ago.

Mosul bears the scars of years of insecurity. House fronts are pitted with bullet holes and cracks from mortar or bomb blasts. Sewage runs in the street and pavements are lined with litter. Unemployment is estimated to be between 70 and 80 per cent, fuelling the insurgency.

General Tony Thomas, the second in command of US troops in the north of Iraq, estimates that there are still thousands of al-Qaeda supporters in Mosul. He puts the number of active fighters in the “high hundreds, under a thousand”.

“You can cut that in half by offering real jobs,” he said.

Christianity in Iraq

— Christians have lived in the area that now forms Iraq for about 2,000 years. According to tradition, Christianity was first preached there by St Thomas on his way to India. Mosul is called Nineveh in the Bible

— Most Iraqi Christians are Chaldeans, Eastern Catholics autonomous from Rome, some of whom still speak Aramaic

— Before the Gulf War in 1991 their number was estimated at one million. By 2003 they had dwindled to around 800,000

— Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein’s Deputy Prime Minister, was Christian, and Christians escaped much of the persecution suffered by Kurds and Shias under the Baathist regime

Iraqi Christians Flee Mosul in the Wake of Attacks

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/world/middleeast/15iraq.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/15/africa/15iraq.php

By SAM DAGHER

Published: October 14, 2008

BAGHDAD — A church in the northern city of Mosul was bombed Tuesday as Christians continued to leave the city to escape recent violence that has been directed at them.

Several church leaders accused the Iraqi government of trying to cover up the extent of the problems facing Christians there and of overstating its success in improving security in Mosul, one of the country’s most volatile cities.

As the government announced plans on Tuesday to send officials to Mosul to assist the Christian community, the anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, who is believed to be in Iran, sent some of his most senior aides from the holy Shiite city of Najaf to Baghdad to meet with church leaders in an expression of solidarity

“For Christians in Mosul this is a time for tears, because from the beginning we did not get support, least of all from state officials,” Msgr. Shlemon Warduni, the auxiliary bishop of the Chaldean Patriarchate, told the Shiite delegation during a meeting on Tuesday at the Virgin Mary Church in eastern Baghdad.

“The government acted only belatedly,” he said.

One of Mr. Sadr’s representatives at the meeting, Sheik Muhanned al-Gharrawi, said that he had just spoken to Mr. Sadr by telephone and that he was instructed to convey a message from his leader: “We will not hesitate to turn into human shields for our Christian brothers if need be.”

Another Shiite cleric, Hazem al-Araji, said that some of the families that had fled Mosul to predominantly Christian villages in the Nineveh Plain, northeast of the city, sought the protection of his movement.

“We told them that we cannot provide military help but that we will exert pressure on the government,” Mr. Araji said.

He added that his movement would send trucks with food, mattresses and blankets to aid displaced families.

Mr. Sadr’s followers say their militia, the Mahdi Army, has been dismantled.

Both Monsignor Warduni and a Christian community leader, Iyad al-Ashouri, accused the Iraqi government, notably the Ministry of Defense, of belittling the extent of the crisis in Mosul.

The government, which ordered additional forces to Mosul on Sunday, said in a statement that it was sending a ministerial delegation there to “address the problems and needs of our Christian brothers.”

On Tuesday, a homemade bomb placed at the door of the Miskinta Church in the Old City district of Mosul detonated and caused some damage to the building but no casualties, Monsignor Warduni said.

Security officials in Mosul confirmed the episode, the first known attack on a Christian site on the city’s west side since a wave of attacks against Christians began in late September. Most of the violence has been on the east side of the city.

Ramzi Mikha, a Christian member of the Nineveh provincial council, said that although the pace of Christians leaving Mosul had slowed on Tuesday, dozens were still leaving, with some heading to the relative safety of some neighborhoods in Baghdad.

It is unclear who is responsible for the attacks. Some Arab politicians have blamed the Kurds; Kurdish politicians have said that former Baathists and “terrorists” are responsible.

Five Sunni insurgent groups issued separate statements over the past few days disavowing the attacks, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militants’ Web sites.

The Rev. Nadheer Dakko of the St. Georges Chaldean Church in the Ghadeer neighborhood of Baghdad, who is also acting as a liaison for various Christian groups, said he had compiled a list of 1,795 families who had left Mosul since late September.

He said 10 families had come from Mosul to his church seeking food, supplies and shelter.

Shukria Youssef, a member of the St. Georges congregation whose sister is a nun at an orphanage in Mosul, said many of the Christians remaining in the city were destitute and could not afford to leave.

“As long as there are people my sister and the other nuns will not leave,” she said. “They consider themselves spiritual soldiers.”

Haitham Haazem, a Christian who fled to Baghdad from Mosul with his wife on Sunday, said Iraqi forces had restricted themselves to fixed checkpoints and had little control over entire neighborhoods on the east side, where killings and intimidations took place.

In other developments, an American soldier was killed Tuesday in an attack while he was on patrol in western Baghdad, the United States military said in a statement.

In London, Iraq’s oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, met on Monday with representatives of 35 oil companies that have qualified to bid on long-term service contracts at six major oil fields and two gas fields. The winning bids will be announced next summer.

Major foreign oil companies are returning to Iraq 36 years after losing concessions when the industry was nationalized.

Christian shot dead in Mosul

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/10/2008101310057937825.html

October 13, 2008

Iraq: More Food Aid Needed for Displaced Christians – official

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=80882

Baghdad, 13 October 2008 (IRIN) - Calls for more humanitarian aid have been made as an increasing number of Christians flee their homes in and around the northern city of Mosul due to attacks by Sunni extremists.

"As of today [October 12], the number of Christian families who have fled their homes in Mosul has reached 1,094 [about 5,470 individuals]. They are still fleeing to nearby Christian towns and villages fearing attack by gunmen," said Jawdat Ismaiel, provincial director of the office of the Ministry of Displacement and Migration.

Ismaiel told IRIN he had appealed to the ministry, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS), and the International Organization for Migration to help with more food and other aid for these families.

"The most needed items are food, blankets and bed rolls… We have distributed 350 items so far and we will distribute at least 200 more tomorrow," Ismaiel said.

Falah Hilal, head of the IRCS office in nearby Ninevah Province, said his teams had supplied 525 families with aid in two towns.

"These families are going through hard times, with panic, sadness and misery obvious in their faces," Falah Hilal told IRIN. "They have left their properties and their children are out of school… displacement is still under way."

Each aid package includes four bed rolls, four blankets, four pillows, sanitary and cooking materials, canned food, a lantern, tomato paste, and clothing for adults and children.

Investigation

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered an investigation "to adopt immediate and necessary measures to enable the Christian families displaced over the past few days to go back home," a government statement said.

Ali al-Dabagh, a spokesman for the Iraqi government, on 12 October condemned "criminal groups trying to harm the coexistence and forgiveness principles among Iraqis".

Al-Dabagh accused extremist groups of targeting "an essential segment of Iraqis, Christians with whom we have a long history of brotherhood and coexistence."

In Mosul, an Iraqi army officer who preferred anonymity said: "We will protect Christians and their properties, and hunt down the terrorists behind these criminal acts, so as to help those who have fled their homes to return."

Whilst there is no accurate data on the size of the Christian community, hundreds of thousands are believed to have fled the country since the US-led 2003 invasion. There were around 800,000 Christians in Iraq in 2003, according to Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako.

A police officer in Mosul who preferred anonymity said that since 4 October police had found seven dead bodies of Christians who had been kidnapped and apparently killed execution-style.

Iraq pours in police to protect Christians

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/13/2388820.htm

Posted Mon Oct 13, 2008 1:00am AEDT

Iraq deployed around 1,000 police in Christian areas of Mosul, an official said, as thousands of members of the minority group fled the worst violence against them in five years.

"Two (national police) brigades were sent to Christian areas in Mosul and churches were surrounded and put under tight security," interior ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said.

He said the reinforcements had been deployed from midnight in the restive northern city, considered by US and Iraqi commanders as the last urban stronghold of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Mr Khalaf added that two investigation teams, one security and the other criminal, had also been deployed to probe a spate of attacks on Christians in Mosul since September 28, in which at least 11 people have been killed.

An AFP correspondent said police had set up checkpoints at churches in the city's four heavily Christian areas and were patrolling the streets on foot.

Nearly 1,000 Christian families have fled their homes in the city since Friday, taking shelter on the northern and eastern fringes of Nineveh province, according to provincial governor Duraid Kashmula.

He said the violence was the worst against Christians in five years.

"(It) is the fiercest campaign against Christians since 2003," Mr Kashmula said. "Among those killed over the past 11 days were a doctor, an engineer and a handicapped person."

At least three homes of Christians were blown up by unidentified attackers on Saturday, security officials said.

Mosul military command spokesman Khalid Abdul-Satar said he did not know who was behind the violence but pledged to protect the Christian community.

"We told the Christians through their churches and priests that we are ready to provide security to any house or individual that needs our protection. We have enough forces to do that," Mr Satar said.

Christians flee Mosul in wake of violence

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081013/NATION/810130360

Date: 13-10-2008:

Ned Parker / Los Angeles Times

BAGHDAD — New violence against Christians in the northern city of Mosul has sparked an outcry from Iraq’s religious minority. In the past week, local officials said, many Christian families have fled the city after coming under attack from Sunni Arab militants.

Christians have been targeted along with other religious and ethnic groups since 2003. More than 900 Christian families have fled Mosul in the past week, said Jawdat Ismail, director of the Ministry of Displacement and Migration in Nineveh province.

Iraq’s defense ministry was more cautious about the displacements. A ministry spokesman, Mohammed Askari, told the U.S.-funded Al Hurra satellite TV news channel that the ministry believed Christian families had left the city.

Nineveh, whose capital is Mosul, has been in the front line in the conflict between Kurds and Arabs over northern Iraq’s future boundaries. The tensions have helped fuel violence that has targeted Christians and others, including Kurds, Shabaks and Yazidis.

Sunni Arabs also have been targeted.

Meeting with Christian politicians Sunday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, promised the embattled community protection.

Additional army and national police units were being stationed in Mosul, government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said in a statement. The violence against Christians coincides with a debate in Baghdad over whether minority groups should be guaranteed seats on Iraq’s provincial councils after an election law was approved in late September that failed to reserve any positions for them on the local panels.

Iraq police deployed in Mosul Christian areas

2008-10-13

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=28285

Nearly 1,000 police to patrol Christian areas of northern city of Mosul to protect them from violence.

MOSUL - Iraq ordered nearly 1,000 police to patrol Christian areas of the northern city of Mosul on Sunday.

Observers say Christians are no more threatened than average Iraqis.

Iraqi Christians say forced to flee Mosul

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LD547265.htm

13 Oct 2008

Source: Reuters

MOSUL, Iraq, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Iraqi Christians fleeing attacks in the northern city of Mosul on Monday pleaded for protection from what they described as a systematic plan to drive them out of the area. Kana'an Bahnam, a 58-year-old Christian, fled ethnically mixed Mosul with his family in the middle of the night, in disguise and with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

"There are secret hands trying to promote division and strife between Muslims and Christians," he said.

Jawdat Ismail, a top official with the Displacement and Migration Ministry in Mosul, said that 1,307 Christian families had left their homes in the city, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, for towns and villages nearby.

"It's a systematic, planned scheme that aims to empty Mosul of all Christians," said Yousif Gorgees, a Christian who has been helping others reach Qaraqush, a nearby Christian town.

Officials say between five and 14 Christians have been killed in Mosul in recent days, a trend that has worried the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite Muslim. Houses have been blown up and shopkeepers have been shot.

Maliki has ordered an investigation and vowed to protect Christians in Mosul, long known as one of Iraq's most tolerant cities and home to an ethnic mix of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, including Muslims, Christians and other small minority sects.

It remains unclear who is behind the violence, but at least some Iraqi Christians see an official hand in the attacks.

Sabah Yaqou, a government health worker, escaped to the nearby town of Hamdaniya, where he and his family have squeezed into his brother's home.

"Assassinations of Christians are politically motivated," he said. Yaqou pointed the finger at Mosul's Kurds, who he said were hoping to gain greater power in provincial elections expected to take place early next year.

ARRESTS

Iraqi police have made at least a dozen arrests and have deployed more than 1,000 police to protect Christian areas.

Brigadier-General Khalid Abdul Sattar, spokesman for Iraqi military operations in Nineveh province, said the attacks were "part of terrorist schemes against different religious groups."

While violence has dropped sharply across Iraq, greater bloodshed continues in Mosul, which is seen as the last urban stronghold of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda militants.

The U.S. embassy in Baghdad, condemning the attacks, praised the Iraqi government for its response.

Those behind the attacks "have shown again that their enemy is the Iraqi civilian population," it said in a statement. Yet some Christians are demanding the government do more to protect them.

Naem Ablahd, who has taken refuge in a warehouse in Qaraqush, said that killings in broad daylight "prove the weakness of the local government and security forces."

"At a time when Christian blood is being spilled, we don't get anything but false promises from the security forces," Ablahd said.

Iraq's Christian minority, believed to number in the hundreds of thousands and concentrated mainly in Mosul and Baghdad, has tried to keep a low profile during years of sectarian fighting between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims.

But they have occasionally come under attack, with churches targeted by bombers and priests held for ransom by kidnappers.

Violence causes families to flee

Iraq pours in police to protect Christians

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/10/12/58097.html

Sunday, 12 October 2008

BAGHDAD, Mosul, Arbil (Agencies, AlArabiya.net)

Iraq deployed around 1,000 police in Christian areas of Mosul and set up checkpoints at churches on Sunday, an official said, as thousands of members of the minority group fled the worst violence against them in five years.

"Two (national police) brigades were sent to Christian areas in Mosul and churches were surrounded and put under tight security," interior ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf told AFP.

He said the reinforcements had been deployed from midnight in the restive northern city, considered by U.S. and Iraqi commanders as the last urban stronghold of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Khalaf added that two investigation teams, one security and the other criminal, had also been deployed to probe a spate of attacks on Christians in Mosul since September 28, in which at least 11 people have been killed.

Nearly 1,000 Christian families have fled their homes in the city since Friday following the worst violence against Christians in five years, according to provincial governor Duraid Kashmula.

Mosul military command spokesman Khalid Abdul-Satar said he did not know who was behind the violence but pledged to protect the Christian community.

"We told the Christians through their churches and priests that we are ready to provide security to any house or individual that needs our protection. We have enough forces to do that," Satar said.

" We are the target of a campaign of liquidation, a campaign of violence. The objective is political " Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako

Worst violence in five years

At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday condemned the violence against Christians in both Iraq and India.

"I invite you to pray for peace and reconciliation as situations cause concern and great suffering.... I think of violence against Christians in Iraq and India," he said.

Yunadem Kanna, one of only two Christians in the national parliament, said he had held urgent talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on the violence.

"I just met with Maliki and he promised to deliver," he said, adding that the army and not just police had to move into the area in force if the law was to be upheld.

The flight of Christians from Mosul came as Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako last week called on the U.S. military as well as Prime Minister Maliki's government to protect Christians and other minorities in the face of a rash of deadly attacks.

In an interview with AFP, Sako called on U.S. forces to do more to protect Christians and other minorities.

"We are the target of a campaign of liquidation, a campaign of violence. The objective is political," Sako said, noting that more than 200 Christians had been killed and a string of churches attacked since 2003.

There were around 800,000 Christians in Iraq at the time of the U.S.-led invasion, a number that has since shrunk by around a third as the faithful have fled the country, the archbishop said.

Other Iraq developments

In other news, a spate of attacks in Baghdad on Sunday killed at least 13 people and wounded 24 others, including women and children, security officials said.

The head of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish north, Masoud Barzani, flew to Baghdad on Sunday to discuss a security deal with the United States, a sign the announcement of the long-awaited pact may be closer.

Barzani is one of five political leaders, along with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani and two vice presidents, who must sign off on the agreement that will govern the presence of U.S. troops after the end of this year.

Pope: I pray every day for the Christians in Iraq and India

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=13456&geo=23&size=A

12-10-2008.

Benedict XVI invites the Indian faithful to rejoice in the new saint canonized today, and demands that the authors of violence in Orissa and in other states of India renounce "these acts" and work together to build the civilization of love. The pope calls for the recitation of the Rosary on behalf of reconciliation and peace in North Kivu, and of the work of the synod underway at the Vatican.

Iraq: Attacks Drive Thousands of Christians out of Mosul

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80872

Baghdad, 12 October 2008 (IRIN) - Nearly 750 Christian families, about 3,750 individuals, have fled their homes in Mosul, a city about 400km north of Baghdad, as Sunni Muslim extremists have increased attacks against this religious minority since 4 October, a local official said on 11 October.

"We have registered so far 744 Christian families who left their houses in Mosul due to the recent attacks. Most have ended up either in relatives´ houses or churches or monasteries in nearby towns and villages where there are many Christians," said Jawdat Ismaiel, provincial director of the Ministry of Displacement and Migration.

Ismaiel said these new internally displaced persons (IDPs) are distributed in seven towns and villages to the north and east of Mosul, the provincial capital of Ninevah province. He said there were about 200 families in Qaraqoush, 187 families in Tal Skouf, 145 families in Bartila, 96 families in Baashiqa, 47 families in Karam Less, 37 families in Tilkaif and 32 families in Alqoush.

Ismaiel added that his teams are visiting all the towns and villages that have offered safe haven to Christian families in order to track their number, which is "increasing dramatically hour after hour".

Aid deliveries

He went on to say that 150 food and aid packages have been distributed so far to these families and at least 50 more were expected to be distributed later on 11 October. Each package includes four bed rolls, four blankets, four pillows, hygiene and kitchen materials, cans of food, lanterns, tomato paste, clothing for adults and children and toothpaste.

In addition, Ismaiel said the displacement ministry is planning to build a makeshift tent camp in Bartila if needed.

An accurate estimation of the Christian population in Iraq is not available but hundreds of thousands of Christians are known to have fled the country since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003 for fear of attacks by both Sunni and Shia religious extremists.

A local police officer in Mosul said that since 4 October police had found seven dead Christians who appeared to have been kidnapped by gunmen and killed execution-style. The latest was a construction worker killed on 8 October.

The officer spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media.

Following these recent attacks, Ni´ma Noail, a 50-year-old Christian civil servant, decided to leave his house in Mosul and has ended up in a room in a church in Bartila.

"We left everything behind us. We only took our souls," Noail, a father-of-three, said. "Relatives in other cities and friends in Mosul, including Muslims, advised me to leave after recent events."

He called on the government and US-led forces to "honour their word to offer protection to Christians".

Iraqi Archbishop: Christians face 'liquidation'

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/iraqi.archbishop.christians.face.liquidation/21635.htm

October 12, 2008,

The most senior Catholic cleric in Iraq warned that Christians in his country face “liquidation” if the Iraqi government and the US military do not step-up protection for religious minorities in Iraq.

“We are the target of a campaign of liquidation, a campaign of violence,” said Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako, reported Agence France-Presse on Friday. “The objective is political.”

Sako’s comment comes after police reported earlier this week that seven Christians have been killed in separate attacks this month. Police found bullet-riddled bodies of seven Christians so far this month, with the latest body of a Christian day labourer found on Wednesday.

Since the US-led Iraq war in 2003, more than 200 Christians have been killed, dozens of churches bombed, and more than half the Iraqi Christian population has left the country, according to the archbishop.

He called on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite Muslim-led government to act on repeated promises to protect Iraq’s minorities.

“We have heard many words from Prime Minister Maliki, but unfortunately this has not translated into reality,” he said. “We continue to be targeted. We want solutions, not promises.”

Iraqi Christians, who have no powerful tribes or militias, are completely defenseless and entirely dependent on the government and the US military for protection against extremists, he said.

“We believe it is the responsibility of Americans who occupy our country to protect Iraqis,” Sako said.

He noted that six Christians had recently been killed in less than a week in the northern city of Mosul, including three Christian men who were killed within 24 hours.

“These attacks are not the first,” the senior cleric said. “Unfortunately, they will not be the last.”

Sako, based in the northern city of Kirkuk, has overseen the Christian community in Mosul since the death of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho in March. Rahho, the second most senior Catholic cleric in Iraq, was kidnapped by gunmen after Mass and found dead by the roadside in Mosul two weeks later.

“Those who carry out the attacks want to either push Christians out of the country or force them to ally with some political projects,” Sako said.

But he called on Christians not to lose faith in the country, and stated that “Christians are true sons of Iraq”.

Christians make up a disproportionate number of those fleeing Iraq as refugees to neighbouring countries. Although Christians make up only three per cent of Iraq’s population, they account for nearly half of the refugees leaving the country, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Christian leaders in Iraq are urging the Iraqi parliament to reinstate a law that would reserve a quota of seats for minorities in provincial council elections.

The Iraqi Parliament had recently dropped the clause in its new provincial election law, causing human rights groups and the UN special representative Staffan de Mistura to criticise the decision and demand lawmakers to reinstate Article 50.

Christians flee Mosul

http://middle-east-analysis.blogspot.com/2008/10/christians-flee-mosul.html

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Neither the UN nor American presence in Iraq can save the Christians!

Christians flee northern Iraq city

Attacks in the Iraqi city of Mosul have forced nearly 1,000 Christians, including 500 families, from their homes in just the past week, the governor of the northern Ninawa province says.

Duraid Mohammed Kashmoula on Saturday said most have taken shelter over the past 24 hours in schools, churches, monasteries and the homes of relatives in the northern and eastern fringes of Ninawa. [That's Nineveh, isn't it?]  

The flight came as Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako said Iraq's Christians were facing a campaign of "liquidation" and called on the US military to do more to protect them.

A wave of attacks religiously targeted killings have left at least 11 Christians dead since September 28.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press news agency, Kashmoula described the last seven days as a period of "major displacement".

He said provincial security officials were meeting with Christian leaders to protect the community "from the terrorists, the killers"

The violence in Mosul is occurring despite US-Iraqi operations launched over the summer aimed at routing al-Qaeda in Iraq and other fighters from remaining strongholds north of the capital.

A convoy carrying an official from Iraq's largest Sunni political party was targeted on Saturday while travelling through Mosul, but no one was hurt, police said.

A civilian and an armed man were killed in random gunfire in a Mosul market, a policeman said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media.

Iraqi police in the city located 360km northwest of Baghdad have reported finding the bullet-riddled bodies of seven Christians in separate attacks so far this month, the latest a day labourer found on Wednesday.

The Christian community has been estimated at three per cent of Iraq's 26 million people, or about 800,000 Christians, and has a significant presence in the northern Ninawa.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/11/news/ML-Iraq-Christians.php

October 11, 2008

BAGHDAD: The governor of Iraq's northern Ninevah province says 500 Christian families have fled their homes in Mosul in the past last week.

Duraid Mohammed Kashmoula says the families have left for churches, monasteries and the homes of relatives in nearby Christian villages and towns.

Kashmoula said Saturday that seven Christians have been killed in the last week. Local Christian leaders have said the attacks amount to a "campaign of killings" and displacement.

The Christian community has been estimated at 3 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, or about 800,000 people. Islamic extremists have frequently targeted them since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Mosul is Ninevah's provincial capital and is 225 miles northwest of Baghd

Christians flee Iraqi city after killings, threats, officials say

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/10/11/iraq.violence/index.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 900 Christian families have fled Mosul in the past week, terrified by a series of killings and threats by Muslim extremists ordering them to convert to Islam or face possible death, officials said Saturday.

The attacks may have been prompted by Christian demonstrations ahead of provincial elections, which are to be held by the end of January, the deputy governor of Nineveh province said.

Deputy Gov. Khasro Goran said 13 Christians have been slain in the past two weeks inMosul, about 260 miles (420 kilometers) north of Baghdad. Fleeing Christians have sought refuge in monasteries and churches and with family members in other towns, an Interior Ministry official said.

The attacks began after hundreds of Christians took to the streets in Mosul and surrounding villages and towns, seeking greater representation on provincial councils, whose members will be chosen in the local elections.

Duraid Mohammed Kashmoula, Nineveh's governor, told The Associated Press that the exodus was "a major displacement."

"Of course, al Qaeda elements are behind this campaign against Christians," Kashmoula told AP.

The Interior Ministry official said the homes of three families were destroyed with explosives Saturday after the occupants left. No injuries were reported.

A week ago, leaflets were distributed in several predominantly Christian neighborhoods, threatening families to "either convert to Islam or pay the jizyah or leave the city or face death," said the Interior Ministry official.

Historically, jizyah is a tax paid by non-Muslims in exchange for protection.

Goran said that a few days after the leaflets were passed out, gunmen set up checkpoints in parts of Mosul, stopping vehicles to inspect identification papers, searching for Christian names or other signs of religious affiliation. Many of the Christians killed were targeted in this way, he said.

Bashir Azoz, 45, told AP he fled his Mosul home after gunmen warned a neighbor to leave or be killed.

"Where is the government and its security forces as these crimes take place every day?" asked Azoz, a carpenter who is staying with his wife and three children in a town about 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Mosul, according to AP.

The Rev. Bolis Jacob, of Mosul's Mar Afram Church, told AP he couldn't understand the attacks.

"We respect the Islamic religion and the Muslim clerics," he said. "We don't know under what religion's pretexts these terrorists work."

Goran said police have set up security checkpoints in Christian neighborhoods.

In response to the violence, Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul Qader al-Obaidi visited Mosul on Saturday morning, conducting meetings with local authorities and military commanders.

His spokesman, Mohammed al-Askari, said that in addition to ordering more checkpoints in Christian neighborhoods, al-Obaidi ordered more troops deployed, additional security patrols and an increase in aerial surveillance of Christian areas.

Al-Obaidi also ordered more guards for Christian clerics, al-Askari said.

Iraq: The fear of massacre

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/iraq.the.fear.of.massacre/21633.htm

October 11, 2008, 12:06

Up to 20 Christians have been killed in just 10 days as fears of an impending massacre grip the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Latest reports received by Aid to the Church in Need, the charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, indicate an increasing state of alarm with Christians now being shot dead at an average rate of two a day as Islamic militants assert their authority over the city.

The latest victim in a killing spree which has claimed the lives of at least 15 Christians is 38-year-old Jalal Moussa, who reports state was shot dead outside his home on Wednesday.

Sources close to the scene report that another two Christians may also have been killed in the incident in Mosul’s Noor district.

Preparations are underway to help Christians fleeing the city with emergency food, medicine and shelter which is being stockpiled in neighbouring villages including the Christian town of Qaraqosh where security is much better.

Speaking from Erbil, in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, Father Bashar Warda, from the Chaldean Catholic Church, told ACN: “We are afraid that that what is happening in Mosul will develop into a massacre.”

Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk, who has nominal oversight over Mosul after the death of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho who was kidnapped in February 2008, added: “I am very worried. The situation is now critical.”

The archbishop has sent a message pleading with the fanatics to stop the violence.

Church authorities have since heard that security is to be stepped up to protect Christians but Fr Warda dismissed the move as “too little, too late”.

The priest, who is rector of St Peter’s Seminary, in Erbil, northern Iraq, described how militants in Mosul were going from house to house with letters warning Christians to leave or face being shot.

Other sources describe extremists driving round Mosul shouting slogans against Christians, threatening more violence.

Fr Warda told ACN that in the past few days the bosses of utility and financial services in Mosul have advised Christian employees to stop work and leave after receiving threats of violence from militants hell-bent on ridding the city of non-Muslims.

The violence is centred in the Mosul districts of Al Souker and Al Taheer and fears are growing that the atrocities will spread to the rest of the city.

Church leaders told ACN they neither knew who was responsible for the violence or why it should have suddenly escalated.

But many link it to the growing confidence of militant extremists who are now asserting their authority over Mosul and irritation among fanatics at a Christian-led fight-back against plans to drop the so-called Article 50 guaranteeing minority groups seats in provincial parliaments.

The outbreak of full-scale persecution against Christians in Mosul can be traced back to the immediate aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s fall from power and a sudden surge in militant activity in a region where extremism has always been strong.

The Christian population in Mosul has plummeted, falling from about 25,000 in 2003/4 to 5,000 today, raising fears of the extinction of a once large and ancient Church dating back centuries.

As a charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, Aid to the Church in Need has offered emergency assistance for thousands of Iraqi Christian refugees as well as displaced people seeking sanctuary in the north of the country and the Nineveh plain around Mosul.

3,000 Christians flee Mosul 'killing campaign'

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-10-11-christian-mosul_N.htm

Date: 11-10-2008

BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds of terrified Christian families have fled Mosul to escape Sunni extremist attacks that have increased despite months of U.S. and Iraqi military operations to secure the northern Iraqi city, local officials said Saturday.

The governor of northern Iraq's Ninevah province, Duraid Mohammed Kashmoula, said some 3,000 Christians have fled Mosul over the past week alone in what he called a "major displacement." He said most have left for churches, monasteries and the homes of relatives in nearby Christian villages and towns.

"Of course al-Qaeda elements are behind this campaign against Christians," Kashmoula said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. He called on the government to launch a fresh military offensive to chase al-Qaeda in Iraq from his province, as the government has done elsewhere in the country.

While the Christian community in Iraq's third-largest city has previously been targeted, local religious and political leaders say a new trend is emerging of assassinations and forced displacement based solely on religion.

"The Christians were subjected to abduction attempts and paid ransom, but now they are subjected to a killing campaign," Kashmoula said.

The violence in Mosul is occurring despite U.S.-Iraqi operations launched over the summer aimed at routing al-Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgents from remaining strongholds north of the capital.

On Saturday, a convoy carrying an official from Iraq's largest Sunni political party was targeted while traveling through Mosul, but no one was hurt, police said. However, a civilian and an armed man were killed in random gunfire in a Mosul market, said a policeman on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

Iraqi police in the city located 225 miles northwest of Baghdad have reported finding the bullet-riddled bodies of seven Christians in separate attacks so far this month, the latest a day laborer found on Wednesday.

Father Bolis Jacob of Mosul's Mar Afram Church claimed the death toll was even higher. He said he could not understand the attacks.

"We respect the Islamic religion and the Muslim clerics," he said. "We don't know under what religion's pretexts these terrorists work."

The Christian community has been estimated at 3% of Iraq's 26 million people, or about 800,000 Christians, and has a significant presence in the northern Ninevah province. In Mosul, where Christians have lived for some 1,800 years, a number of centuries-old churches still stand.

Joseph Jacob, a professor at Mosul University, said there were nearly 20,000 Christians in the city before the 2003 U.S. invasion. But over half have since left for neighboring towns, or new countries, he said.

Islamic extremists have frequently targeted Christians since the U.S. invasion, forcing tens of thousands to flee Iraq. Attacks had tapered off amid a drastic decline in overall violence nationwide, but concerns are rising about the deaths this month.

Earlier this week, Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako said he was worried about what he termed a "campaign of killings and deportations against the Christian citizens in Mosul."

On Saturday, Bashir Azoz, a 45-year-old carpenter, said he was forced to flee his home in the city's eastern Noor area after gunmen warned a neighbor the day before to leave or face death.

"Where is the government and its security forces as these crimes take place every day?" asked Azoz, who is now staying with his wife and three children in a monastery in the Christian-majority town of Qarqoush, about 25 miles east of Mosul.

"We only took with us our official documents and a few other essential things such as blankets, some clothing and dishes," Azoz added.

Christian leaders are also fighting for a political voice in Iraq. They are hoping the parliament will pass a law setting aside a number of seats for minorities such as Christians in upcoming provincial elections, fearing they could be further marginalized in the predominantly Muslim country.

Separately on Saturday, a U.S. soldier died when a bomb exploded near his vehicle near Amarah, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad. The U.S. military said it was withholding the name of the deceased until it notified the soldier's next of kin.

Violence in Mosul Forces Iraqi Christians to Flee

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/world/middleeast/11iraq.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

By ERICA GOODE and SUADAD AL-SALHY

Published: 10-10- 2008

BAGHDAD -- Hundreds of Christians are fleeing Mosul in the wake of a string of killings that appear to be singling out Christians in the northern Iraqi city, where many had taken refuge from persecution in other parts of the country.

At least 11 and perhaps as many as 14 Christians have been killed in Mosul since the end of August, according to government officials and humanitarian groups. The victims have included a doctor, an engineer, two builders, two businessmen and a 15-year-old boy, who was shot dead in front of his house. In the last week alone, seven Christians were killed.

On Friday, a pharmacist was shot to death by a man who pretended to be an undercover police officer and asked for the man's identification card, said Khisroo Koran, deputy governor of Nineveh Province, which is in northern Iraq. Mosul is the province's capital.

Louis Sako, the archbishop of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Kirkuk, said Friday that the killings were an example of "a campaign of cleansing, killing and threatening" that Christians faced in Iraq.

The shootings in Mosul come on the heels of an angry dispute over the Iraqi Parliament's decision to drop a provision in an earlier version of the provincial elections law that ensured political representation for Christians and other minorities. Lawmakers approved the legislation, without the provision, on Sept. 24.

Christians have held demonstrations to protest the Parliament's action in Baghdad and in Nineveh Province -- where about 250,000 Christians live, about 50,000 of them in Mosul.

At one demonstration in Nineveh, protesters held up signs demanding the creation of a 19th province governed by Christians that would be linked to the Kurdish region in the north, according to William Warda, an Iraqi journalist and chairman of the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization, which is based in Baghdad.

Earlier this week, a panel led by President Jalal Talabani approved the provincial elections law but urged the Parliament to reconsider the issue of representation for minorities and to take a separate vote on the section that had been dropped. The lawmakers decided instead to form a committee to draft a new law after they determined which groups should be designated as minorities and how many council seats should be reserved for them.

Several Iraqi Christian leaders said Friday that the killings in Mosul might be tied to the protests held last week and the demands for a semiautonomous province.

Mr. Koran said that fliers had recently appeared on the streets in Mosul threatening Christians and warning them to leave the city. He blamed insurgents and people he called "nationalist extremists" for the killings. Others have blamed the Kurds, who control much of the east side of Mosul and the region surrounding the city.

In the last week, more than 150 families have left Mosul for towns northeast of the city like Bartilla, Tallkayf and Qaraqosh, which are predominantly Christian, according to provincial officials.

Jawdat Toma Yousef, who owns a store selling wholesale underwear in the market in central Mosul, said that he and his family had moved away after his brother, who also had a wholesale store, was killed last Saturday around noon.

"Me and another brother closed our store at 12:15 that day, and then after that, four guys came to the market and one of them shot my brother, Hazzem, and killed him in front of his son," Mr. Yousef said.

He said that after the attack, 18 members of his family were living in a small rented house in Qaraqosh. "We could not bring anything with us except our clothes and our money," he said. "We left Mosul immediately after we buried my brother's body."

There have been kidnappings and killings of Christians in Baghdad and in other parts of Iraq. In Mosul, which has not been immune to the violence, a spate of killings last year terrified Christian residents, and this February, Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, the leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Mosul, was kidnapped and his body was found in March buried in the southeast of the city.

In the towns of the Nineveh Plain, northeast of Mosul, where attacks on Christians have been much more rare, many Christians have taken refuge. The towns are mostly Christian, and the area is dotted by ancient Assyrian and Chaldean villages and monasteries built during the time of Prophet Muhammad.

But even in the Nineveh Plain, tensions have been simmering since 2003, when Kurdish security forces moved into the region. Kurdish flags still fly at the entrances to the towns and checkpoints are controlled by the Peshmerga, the Kurdish security forces.

The Christians are split between those who want to remain under the central Iraqi government and those in favor of a semiautonomous province tied to the Kurdish region.

Recently, attacks against Christians have decreased in many parts of Iraq, along with other violence. "The reality is that vengeance and the attempts against Christians have moved to the north, and that is really difficult, really difficult, because that is the precise place they ran for safety," said Canon Andrew White, the Anglican vicar of St. George's Church in Baghdad.

In other developments, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki went to Najaf on Friday to visit Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most influential Shiite religious leader. Mr. Maliki said afterward that Mr. Sistani would not oppose a security agreement governing the continued presence of American troops in Iraq, as long as the government gave its assent and Parliament approved the agreement.

Earlier this week, Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte and Iraq's foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said negotiators were close to resolving the issues that have stood in the way of an agreement.

The Americans and the Iraqis are under pressure to complete the security agreement before Dec. 31, when a United Nations mandate that serves as the legal basis for the presence of American troops expires.

In Sadr City on Friday, thousands of followers of the rebel Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr shouted anti-American slogans as they marched along a funeral convoy carrying the body of Saleh al-Ugaili, a member of Parliament representing the Sadrist party who was killed on Thursday by a roadside bomb.

In a statement, Mr. Sadr blamed the United States for Mr. Ugaili's death. The United States Embassy and the American military condemned the killing as "an attack on against Iraq's democratic institutions."

Also on Friday, a car bomb exploded in the Abu Dshir neighborhood of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people.

Reporting was contributed by Campbell Robertson from Qosh, Iraq; Atheer Kakan, Tareq Maher and Riyadh Mohammed from Baghdad; and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Kirkuk.

By Erica Goode And Suadad Al-Salhy

New York Times

Islamic fundamentalists: "expel Christians from Mosul"

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=13442&geo=23&size=A

9-10-2008:

Yesterday, a 38-year-old Chaldean was shot to death, but there could be a total of three victims. Men are driving around the city shouting slogans against the Christians, threatening more slaughter and violence. From the U.S. command, confirmation that Mosul has become the last stronghold of the al Qaeda militants.

Mosul, martyrdom of Iraqi Christians continues

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=13422&geo=23&size=A

8-10-2008

Yesterday, three more victims - including a father and son - were killed by fundamentalists because they were guilty of "being Christian" in a country where a "systematic persecution" is now underway against non-Muslims. A source denounces "the silence" of the Iraqi media, and the inaction of the international community.

Mosul, another "targeted murder" against the Christian community

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=13416&geo=23&size=A

7-10-2008

A disabled 25-year-old shopkeeper was killed yesterday, not far from the shop that he owned. The objective of the fundamentalists is to shut down the activities of Christians and force them to flee. A source for AsiaNews denounces the "complicity" of the police, and the "curtain of silence" that has fallen across the slaughter.