Fadila Naoum, 85, and her 79-year-old bed-ridden sister Margaret were killed Monday, March 26, in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, said Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk.
In a statement distributed by international Catholic charity ‘Aid to the Church in Need’ and monitored by BosNewsLife, Bishop Sako said the murders have "shocked an entire community."
He claimed "robbers" broke into their home near Kirkuk’s City Hall and close to a Dominican convent where the nuns had close links with the sisters.
The Archbishop denied media reports that the sisters were nuns and said a police inquiry was underway. No arrests were reportedly made Saturday, March 31.
FUNERAL SERVICE
After conducting a funeral service, the bishop said the local Christian community "took care of Margaret and Fadhila." He said he was "really moved and upset about the bad situation which appears to go on without end."
It was still unclear Saturday, March 31, whether the murders were religiously-motivated, but the bishop stressed the killings would "stoke fears that Kirkuk" was also to suffer the same anti-Christian violence as elsewhere in Iraq.
"There are reports about how Christians in Kirkuk are now beginning to panic. But I am telling them not to be afraid. The situation here is not the same as in Baghdad and Mosul," he cautioned.
The violence in both cities and elsewhere has sparked a Christian exodus, but Archbishop Sako said Kirkuk had so far only received 30 displaced families.
CITIES STRUGGLING
However he confirmed that the murders came at a time when several cities are struggling to cope with a growing number of displaced Christians within Iraq. Archbishop Sako said at least one Kurdish city, Ainkawa, was already “not prepared” for the influx of Catholic Christians.
Ainkawa and the surrounding Erbil region is now home to Babel College, St Peter’s Seminary and a number of female religious congregations, "which have now been evacuated from the Baghdad area," ACN said.
The murders of the sisters were also closely monitored in neighboring Jordan, where thousands of Christians have sought refuge.
They include Iraqi sisters Nasrin and Rihab who told reporters they enjoyed "a relatively peaceful life" in Baghdad until the night almost a year ago when militiamen tortured and beheaded their only brother.
THREATENING CALLS
Then came threatening phone calls, said the Christian sisters, and not long afterward, armed men broke into their home and beat them.
They "started hitting us, pulling our hair and pounding on my sister’s stomach with their boots," wailed Nasrin, now 51, in an interview in their tiny apartment in Amman with The Associated Press news agency.
Rihab’s gallbladder burst, and blood came out of her mouth, the sisters reportedly recalled. She was rushed to a hospital and when she recovered, with a large scar still across her middle, the two fled to Jordan.
"We escaped after that. They vowed to kill us," said Rihab, 56, who like her sister would not allow her family name to be used for fear of more attacks.
CHURCHES BOMBED
Besides attacking individual Christians, militants bombed Churches and destroyed Christian-run businesses, particularly liquor shops and hair salons amid sectarian fighting between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
Christians have been often accused by Muslim militants of having close ties with the US-led coalition.
As Iraq commemorated the 4th anniversary since the invasion began, new figures showed there are an estimated 750,000 Iraqi refugees in Jordan, including at least 2,000 Christians. An additional 1 million Iraqis have fled to Syria.
Before war broke out, there were at least about 750,000 Christians in Iraq, but observers fear that number is now reduced to 450,000 or even less as many fled the troubled nation. (With BosNewsLife reporting and BosNewsLife Research).
