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Iraq: The bloodshed of Aramean people and bombardment of churches continues undiminished.
Two killings in Mosul and bomb attack in Baghdeda (Qaraqosh)
 Syrian Orthodox Mor Gorgis Church in Qaraqosh (Baghdeda) targeted by a car bomb. |
The Aramean blood continue to flow in Iraq. And the bombardments on their sacred buildings with the aim to intimidate and expel them from their indigenous land, Aram-Nahrin, is repeating with the regularity of clockwork.
On 12-11-2008 two sisters were killed in Mosul. The sisters belonged tot a West- Aramean Syrian Catholic family in Mosul. A group armed terrorists entered a house in the Alkahira district in Mosul and killed two sisters Lamia and Walaa Sobhy Salloha in cold blood. After the brutal killings of the sisters, the terrorists put a bomb in their home which was detonated at the arrival of the police. Two policemen were killed and few of them were wounded.
End September a mass exodus of Arameans took place from Mosul because of killings, threats and intimidations by fanatics or political groups. More than 10.000 Arameans left Mosul, around 1500 families, for more secure surrounding villages. Lately, around 700 families returned back to Mosul after security guarantees by local and central authorities.
With the recent killings of the two Aramean sisters, the terrorists seem to signal the Aramean Christians that they are not welcome in Mosul, in spite of the security guarantees.
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Bomb attack on the West- Aramean Syrian Orthodox Mor Gorgis Church in Qaraqosh (Baghdeda) |
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On 13-11-2008 a car bomb was detonated in front of the West- Aramean Syrian Orthodox Church Mor Gorgis in Bagdeda (Qaraqosh), in the Nineve Plain. Twelve people injured; fife of them were military of Iraqi army. The terrorists seem to signal the Arameans that nowhere in Iraq they are safe. The message the terrorists seem to convey is that the Arameans, including "Assyrians" and Chaldeans, should keep quite and in no way should start to talk about their rights, in spite of the fact that they are the original inhabitants of this part of the world.
The Aramean nation in Iraq, also made know as “Assyrians” or Chaldeans, is targeted by terrorists, political groups, ordinary criminals and thieves who misuse the current chaotic situation in Iraq to terrorize our nation. Because of insecurity, terror, killings and extortion, an important part of Aramean people have left Iraq for countries like Syria and Jordan. The list of killed Arameans is long, it includes clergy as well as laymen, amongst others:
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West- Aramean Syrian Orthodox priest Paulus Iskandar killed in Mosul on 12-10-2006 by terrorists, |
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The West- Aramean Isoh Majeed Hadaya killed by terrorists in Iraq 22-11-2006 |
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East- Aramean Chaldean priest Ragied Aziz Gannie brutally murdered in Mosul along with three deacons by Muslim extremists on 3-6-2007. |
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East- Aramean Chaldean bishop of Mosul, Mgr. Paulus Faraj Raho was abducted on 29-2-2008 in Mosul. His body was found on 13-3-2008 in Mosul and on 14-3-2008 he was buried in St. Addai Church in Karemlesh. |
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West- Aramean Syrian Orthodox priest Yusuf Adel Abud was killed on 5-4-2008 by terrorists in Baghdad and was buried on 6-4-2008 in the St. Paul and St. Cathedral in Baghdad. |
See also our analyses:
Attempt
of ethnic cleansing Mosul: The Aramean Srebrinica.
Who is
responsible and why?
Gunmen Kill 2 Christian Sisters in Iraq
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-11-12-voa12.cfm
Cairo
12 November 2008
Iraqi police say gunmen they identify as Islamic extremists shot and killed two Christian sisters while storming their house and rigging it with explosives in the war-torn northern Iraqi city of Mosul. The mother of the two women was also wounded, as Edward Yeranian reports for VOA from Cairo.
Christian families in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul are the focus of violence targeting their once-prominent community.
The extremists shot and killed the two Christian sisters, and police say they then wired the home with explosives. The explosives detonated later when a squad of Iraqi police was sent to investigate the crime. Several of the policemen were wounded by the blasts.
The U.N. High Commission for Refugees says more than 12,000 Iraqi Christians have fled Mosul after numerous kidnappings and killings, and threats made against them.
U.S. military forces and their Iraqi counterparts are waging an intensive campaign against al-Qaida and other Islamic militants in a battle to restore normalcy to the beleaguered city.
An operation called "Mother of Two Springs," an allusion to the Arabic name for Mosul, began last spring and picked up intensity in mid-October.
Mosul lies between northern Iraq's Kurdish region and the Sunni Arab heartland, and there is communal friction as well as violence from Islamic extremists aimed at U.S. and Iraqi forces.
One U.S. officer told Reuters news agency that the violence in Mosul resembled what was going on in Baghdad 18 months ago, before security was improved in the capital city.
Iraqi officials have repeatedly pledged to help protect the tiny, beleaguered Christian community in Mosul, but large numbers continue to flee to Kurdistan and elsewhere as Monsignor Paul Dahdah, the Apostolic Vicar in Beirut reveals. He says that he saw a family from Mosul that had fled the city for Lebanon in order to seek refuge, either in Beirut or to get a visa for a third country. The mother made it to Lebanon, via Syria, with her two children, he adds, but her husband was kidnapped and no one knows what happened to him.
The plight of Iraqi Christians has prompted the Vatican and other Christian organizations to lobby several Western governments for political and military action to protect the small remaining group of Chaldean Christians, Armenians, and Catholics.
But Monsignor Dahdah thinks more must be done. He says church leaders must insist that much more be done in terms of security in order to stop the exodus that has befallen the Christian community in Iraq, reducing their numbers to less than half their pre-2003 levels.
Dahdah blames the United States for the bad security situation in northern Iraq and thinks it is the United States' responsibility to restore order to Mosul.
New anti-Christian attack in Mosul, two sisters killed
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=13732&geo=23&size=A
12-11-2008
Eyewitnesses say the gang that carried out the attack was made up of men ranging in age from 16 to 18. Attackers killed the young women in cold blood then placed a bomb at the entrance of their house, killing two policemen when it went off. Sources tell AsiaNews that the violence is tied to an ongoing “power struggle” ahead of upcoming provincial council elections.
Mosul (AsiaNews) – Mosul Christians have been attacked again today. A group of armed men stormed a house in the Alqahira neighbourhood where they killed two sisters in what amounts to targeting killing. After entering the building the gunmen shot the two young women in cold blood and wounded their mother with a knife. At present she is in hospital but her conditions are not serious. The husband and the son were able to escape at the start of the attack.
The victims are Lamia Sobhy Salloha and Walàa Sobhy Salloha, both from the Syro-Catholic Church of Mosul. The two young women were employed by the Office of the Treasurer of the Municipality of Wala.
According to eyewitnesses the attack was carried out by a gang of 16-to18-year olds who after attacking the residents of the house placed a bomb at the entrance and detonated it when a group of police agents came to the scene, killing two and wounding others.
A source told AsiaNews that “youth gangs from poor families” were involved in the incident but that behind them there is “a criminal organisation” that is doing everything to drive Christians out of the city.
“It is over power and the next election to provincial councils and minority representation, which might be decisive for the balance between Arabs and Kurds,” said the source.
Urged by the United Nations, the government had promised to put art. 50 back into a draft law to guarantee minorities 15 seats out of 440 (13 for Christians). But on 3 November parliament passed the bill without doing so, which later received the necessary sanction by the Presidency Council to become law with only one seat set aside for Mosul Christians. The parliament’s decision has embittered the leaders of the Iraqi Church who slammed the blatant violation of the constitution which should ensure equal rights for all citizens.
“We don’t trust anyone. Both Arabs and Kurds promised to help us but so far we have not seen anything concrete,’ the source told AsiaNews. Today’s attack was “another warning by those who want to force Christians into the Niniwa Plains.”
In recent days more than 700 families had decided to come back to Mosul after local authorities promised to provide them with greater protection. This targeted killing “will push Christians to flee again” and threats of new attacks and violence will continue to hang over the few who remain.
“It is all a political game but it is Christians who are the losers,” said the source.
Today’s attack is but the last in a series of acts of violence against Mosul’s Christian community which has been targeted by Islamic fundamentalists and armed gangs alike.
Since the start of October, 16 people have died and 2,000 families (about 12,000 people) have left the city.
Matters had begun to get better in recent days, hence the decision of 700 families to come back; however, today’s attack will cast an even greater shadow on the fate of Iraq’s Christian community. (DS)
