| 2008 attacks on Christians | |
|---|---|
| Location | Mosul, Iraq |
| Date | October 2008 - January 2009 |
| Target | Christians |
| Attack type | Killings, intimidation |
| Deaths | > 40[1] |
| Suspected perpetrator(s) | al-Qaeda in Iraq, Kurdish Peshmerga |
2008 attacks on Christians in Mosul was a series of attacks which targeted the Christians Mosul, Iraq. The Christians of Mosul which were already targeted during the Iraq War left the city en masse heading to Assyrian Christian villages in Nineveh Plains and Iraqi Kurdistan. Both Sunni extremists, and Kurdish peshmerga were blamed for the attacks.
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Religious minorities in general and Christians in particular were badly affected by the rise of Islamic fundamentalism after the invasion of Iraq. A number of Christians was killed in Baghdad and Mosul, and in 1 Augusts 2004 a series of explosions targeted Churches in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk leaving 15 dead and 71 injured.[2]
On 13 March 2008, the body of the Chaldean Archbishop of the city, Paulos Faraj Rahho, was found buried in a shallow grave near Mosul. Rahho was the highest ranking Christian cleric to be killed in Iraq. [3]
The first series of attacked started in October when Christians families were given choice of death or converting to Islam.[4] By the end of October around 14 Christians were killed,[5] and more than 13,000 forced to flee to Nineveh Plains.[6] The Iraqi government pledged to 900,000 Dollar to help the refugees.[6]
Seven bodies belonging to Christians were found in the streets of Mosul early on November. A house belonging to Syriac Catholic sisters was attacked and two nuns were killed and a third severely injured.[7] around 500 families was forced to flee the city as a result, where they found refuge in Churches and relatives in nearby villages.[8]
The Kurdish region is generally considered much safer for Christians and other religious minorities than the Arab parts of Iraq, but now the Peshmerga have been blamed for forcing Christians out of their homes by threatening them with death or by killing them. "We heard the people from another Christian neighborhood describing how these armed men stormed the houses and shouted at people to get out," she says. "They were speaking in a kind of pidgin Arabic, not like a Mosul accent at all, but like Kurds, trying to speak Arabic." [9][10]
Iraq's Kurdistan region includes three provinces: Arbil, Sulaimaniyah and Duhok. The Iraqi constitution demands that the final borders of the kurdish region be determined by plebiscite, the date of which had been postponed several times. The disputed areas include Kirkuk province and other areas in Diyala, Salah al-Din and Ninewa, including Sinjar district, but not the city of Mosul which has a majority of Sunni Arabs. arguing that Kurds form the majority in these areas.[11] But the US military, responsible for all security operations in the region denied the allegations of Kurdish responsibility.[12]
Younadem Kana, a member of Iraq’s parliament and head of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, said media reports, including the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, “published lies under my name” accusing the Kurds of allowing violence to displace more Mosul Christians. “My statements were changed and fabrications were published under my name,” said Kana, who also heads the Assyrian Democratic Movement. He said the accusation against Kurds, first publicized at a press conference Oct. 25 by Sunni parliamentarian Osama al-Nujaifi, were “baseless.”[13]
Accusations against Kurdish groups were made by a new Arab party bloc called al Hadba, led by a former business associate of the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, named Osama Al Naijafi and his brother, a parliamentarian currently with the Iraqi list and another former General in the Iraqi army, responsible for the conduct of the invasion in Kuwait.[14]
On January 2009 15 Christians were killed in Mosul, other Christians fled to the Nineveh Plains and Christian villages in Iraqi Kurdistan for safety. Rumors circulated that Kurds had killed the Christians to draw them into the Kurdish region and side with them when it came time to decide whether the disputed areas would land with the semi-autonomous Kurdish north or with Nineveh province.