IRAQ – Basra Christians Slowly Abandon the City
International Christian Concern | Dec. 14, 2018 According to a publication by the Barnabas Fund, an estimated one Christian family a month is fleeing Iraq’s southern city of Basra. It…
IRAQ – Assyrian Village in North Iraq Closes School After Turkish Shelling
Assyrian International News Agency | Dec. 5, 2018 Christian village near the Kurdistan Region's northern border has temporarily halted all activities due to intermittent Turkish shelling near the area. "The…
IRAQ – Militia Forces Threaten Iraqi Priest
International Christian Concern | Dec. 3, 2018 International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on the morning of December 1, Shabak militia forces aggressively blocked access to St. George Assyrian…
IRAQ – 120 Christian Sites Destroyed in Mosul
International Christian Concern | Dec. 2, 2018 Rudaw reports that thousands of Christian homes as well as 120 churches and Christian shrines have been destroyed by ISIS in Mosul alone.…
IRAQ – Mosul’s Destruction Haunts the Nineveh Plains
International Christian Concern | Nov. 29, 2018 Mosul was once a beautiful city. Today, piles of rubble are everywhere. Buildings are completely demolished; cars are riddled with bullet holes. Despite…
IRAQ – Mosul’s Destruction Haunts the Nineveh Plains
International Christian Concern | Nov. 29, 2018 Mosul was once a beautiful city. Today, piles of rubble are everywhere. Buildings are completely demolished; cars are riddled with bullet holes. Despite…
Persecution of Minority Christian Women ‘Hidden, Complex, and Interwoven with “Everyday” Discrimination’
World Watch Monitor | Nov. 26, 2018 Five new reports – about Egypt, Ethiopia, Iraq, Colombia and the Central African Republic – unmask the multiple domestic, societal and state dynamics…
IRAQ – Iraq Cracks Down on Customary Tribal Justice
International Christian Concern | Nov. 23, 2018 The centuries old Iraqi tribal practice of resolving disputes through the “degga ashairiya” has now been classified by the government as an act…
IRAQ – 350 Christian Homes Illegally Seized in Iraq
International Christian Concern | Nov. 21, 2018 An investigation by an Iraqi media source, al-Sumaria, revealed that at least 350 Christian owned properties have illegally been seized. The government has…
IRAQ – Christians Report Extortion Threats in Ankawa
International Christian Concern | Nov. 18, 2018 Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) law enforcement officials have arrested four individuals accused of threatening violence to extort money from residents of Erbil’s Ankawa…
MIDDLE EAST – ‘Next time we will not survive’ – Middle East Christian Refugee
World Watch Monitor | Nov. 12, 2018 As many as 80% of Syria’s Christians have left their country since the start of the civil war in 2011, while 50% of…
UNITED STATES – USAID Urges Christians, Other Minorities to Return to Iraq: ‘America Is on the Ground’
Breitbart | November 9, 2018 The recently appointed special representative for reconstruction in minority areas of Iraq for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) told Breitbart News he has…
IRAQ – School bells ring again at Mosul’s Christian School
Al- Monitor |Nov. 7, 2018 School bells finally rang at Shimon Safa Elementary School this fall, Mosul’s oldest Christian school that had been closed for four years. The school, also called the Shimon Safa Institute,…
IRAQ – 200 Mass Graves Containing the Remains of 12,000 ISIS Victims are Discovered in Iraq
Daily Mail | Nov. 6, 2018 More than 200 mass graves containing 12,000 bodies, including women, children and the disabled, have been found in Iraq since Islamic State's brutal three-year reign. UN…
Trump Administration Redoubles Its Efforts to Get Aid to Iraq’s Christians
National Catholic Register | Oct. 29, 2018 WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence made a promise last year that the United States would send aid directly to the persecuted Christians…
IRAQ – The Annihilation of Iraq’s Christian Minority
Gatestone Institute | Oct. 28, 2018 "Another wave of persecution will be the end of Christianity after 2,000 years" in Iraq, an Iraqi Christian leader recently said. In an interview earlier this…
UNITED STATES – U.S. to Redirect Aid to Christian Victims of ISIS in Iraq and Syria
International Christian Concern | Oct. 23, 2018 The Arab Weekly recently reported that the United States would increase aid to Iraqi and Syrian religious and ethnic minorities that were targeted…
IRAQ – Christians have been in Iraq for thousands of years. They might all be gone soon.
America: The Jesuit Review | Oct. 19, 2018 Kevin Clarke is the chief correspondent at America. Recently, he traveled to Iraq for 12 days where he met with Iraqi Christians and…
IRAQ – Archbishop in Iraq Fears Persecution May Erase Christianity from Country
International Christian Concern | Oct. 19, 2018 In a recent statement by Archbishop Habib Nafali, he spoke out against the extreme persecution suffered by the church in Iraq and calling…
IRAQ – Iraqi Youth Tells Synod Martyrdom isn’t the Only Form of Persecution
Crux | Oct. 15, 2018 OME - For Safa Al Alqoshy of Iraq, the trauma of terrorism goes beyond killing. It’s experienced in a more lasting way through the insecurity…
IRAQ – Iraqi Archbishop Fears more Persecution, says IS Went Underground
Crux | Oct. 9, 2018 Christianity in Iraq is just one wave of persecution away from extinction, said the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Basra. In an interview with Catholic News Service,…
IRAQ – Turkish Airstrikes Target Iraqi Assyrian Villages — Call for War Crimes Investigation
Assyrian International News Agency | Oct. 3, 2018 The Turkish military launched airstrikes targeting Iraqi Christian villages in northern Iraq, a rights group warned. Local sources have told International Christian…
IRAQ – IS Sex Slave Recalls having to Watch Torture of Other Women
World Watch Monitor | Oct. 3, 2018 One of the Christian women who was captured, trafficked and used as a sex slave by ISIS has told The European Post she was forced to watch public…
IRAQ – Iraq Inches Toward Governance as Baghdad Christians Consider Fleeing
International Christian Concern | Oct. 3, 2018 International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on October 2, 2018, Iraq’s interim government took a positive step toward breaking months of deadlock…
United States – ‘Eliminate’ Blasphemy Laws, says US Commission Chief on International Blasphemy Day
World Watch Monitor | Oct. 1, 2018 In Pakistan, blasphemy accusations often leads to riots, like this one in Islamabad in November 2017.(Photo: World Watch Monitor) Blasphemy laws are “dangerous”…
BAGHDAD – Social Media Star, a Former ‘Miss Baghdad,’ Shot Dead
CNN | Sept. 28, 2018 Iraqi social media star and model Tara Fares has been shot dead in Baghdad, security officials confirmed to CNN. The death of Fares and other…
SYRIA and IRAQ – ISIS Is Ready for a Resurgence
The Atlantic | Aug. 26, 2018 The new recording released by the group’s leader suggested he’s looking to the past to chart a course for the group’s ultimate triumph. Smoke…
IRAQ- Assyrians in Iraq Dwindle and Struggle to Survive
AINA | Aug. 28, 2018 Christians in Iraq are dwindling. Chased out, targeted and caught in the middle of rival sectarian conflicts, the minority religious sect is struggling to survive.…
IRAQ – MUST SEE PHOTOS Rebuilding and Forgiving After ISIS: ‘In the Name of Jesus Christ Everything is Possible’
CBN | Aug. 22, 2018 Christian refugees flee from ISIS (Erbil, Iraq, summer 2014). (Credit: Stivan Shany) It was four years ago this month when some 140,000 Christians were facing…
IRAQ – Rescued Ezidi girl from Mosul leaves Germany after running into same IS abuser
Kurdistan 24 | Aug. 16, 2018 ERBIL – A rescued Yezidi (Ezidi) girl says she has returned to the Kurdistan Region from Germany after being left in shock with repeatedly…
IRAQ – In the wake of ISIS: Seeking to restore what is right and good for the Yazidis
The Hill | Aug. 3, 2018 In May of 2016, Navy Seal Charlie Keating was embedded with Kurdish Peshmerga forces in an area of Northern Iraq known as the Nineveh…
IRAQ – Iraq’s Christians Refuse to Return, Afraid ‘They Will Again Be Targeted’
CBN News | 073018 Tens of thousands of displaced Christians have returned to their cities and villages in the Iraq's Nineveh Plain, but many still refuse to return to Mosul.…
IRAQ – The Simele Massacre & the Unsung Hero of the Genocide Convention
National Review | 072718 The blood-drenched line that led from the Roman arena to the gallows of France and the pogrom of Bialystok also wove through 63 villages in a…
IRAQ – ISIS is making a comeback in Iraq just months after Baghdad declared victory
Washington Post | 07-17-18 BAGHDAD — The Islamic State is creeping back into parts of central Iraq just seven months after the government declared victory in the war against the…
IRAQ – Iraqi Christians Fearful that New Tax Signals Upcoming Persecution
International Christian Concern | 070318 Kurdish Regional Government Institutes a New Business Tax on Select Christian Neighborhoods 07/03/18 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned…
IRAQ – World Refugee Week: Remembering Suffering Christians and Yazidis
CBN News | 062618 This is World Refugee Week, a time when people around the world are encouraged to remember the plight of the world's 25.4 million refugees. This year,…
Rome Symposium Shines Light on Religious Persecution in Preparation for U.S. Ministerial
National Catholic Register | 062518 “It’s a dangerous time to be a person of faith,” said Ambassador Callista Gingrich. “We are at a critical moment. We can and must do…
OPINION – Help Is on the Way for Middle Eastern Christians
Under President Trump’s orders, USAID is directing aid to persecuted communities in Iraq Wall Street Journal | OPINION | Mark Green, Director USAID | 061318 When Islamic State captured the…
IRAQ – Iraqi shepherd determined that Christianity not only survive but thrive
CruxNow | 061218 ERBIL, Iraq - Officially speaking, anyway, there’s no index of the moral heroes of Catholicism in our time. There would be plenty of candidates, clergy and religious…
Pence Demands USAID Break Through Bureaucratic Gridlock to Help Iraqi Christians, Yazidis
Free Beacon | 060918 Incensed over bureaucratic attempts to thwart a direct White House executive order, Vice President Mike Pence is dispatching U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Mark Green…