The Christians have taken shelter over the past 24 hours in schools and churches in the northern and eastern fringes of Nineveh province after attacks that have killed at least 11 Christians since September 28, said provincial governor Duraid Kashmula in statements to reporters.
He said at least 3,000 Christians are now known to have fled Mosul over the past week alone in what he described as a "major displacement."
Recent attacks included three Christian homes that were blown up by suspected Muslim militants in the Sukkar district of Mosul, seen by US and Iraqi security forces as one of the last urban bastions of the ‘Al-Qaeda in Iraq’ network, news reports said.
"FIERCEST CAMPAIGN"
"The (violence) is the fiercest campaign against the Christians since 2003. Among those killed over the past 11 days were a doctor, an engineer and a handicapped person," Kashmula added.
The latest flight came as Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako urged the US military and the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki 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 in remarks published by French News Agency AFP.
He said that since the US-led invasion of 2003, more than 200 Christians had been killed and a string of churches attacked, and added that the violence had intensified in recent weeks, particularly in the north. He said Prime Minister Maliki’s Shiite Muslim-led government must urgently deliver on repeated promises to do more to protect Iraq’s minorities.
Christians comprise about three percent of Iraq’s 26 million people, or about 750-800,000 people, but many of them have fled to neighboring countries because of Islamic attacks, churches say.
DENOMINATIONS CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY
Iraq’s Christian community includes various denominations, including Syrian Orthodox and Catholic, and Armenian Orthodox and Roman Catholic congregations. There is also a growiing evangelical movement in the country, BosNewsLife established. 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, told reporters there were some 20,000 Christians in Mosul before the 2003 US invasion, but he said over half have since left for neighboring towns, or new countries.
On Saturday, Bashir Azoz, a 45-year-old carpenter, told The Associated Press news agency that 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, east of Mosul.
Separately on Saturday, October 11, an American soldier reportedly died when a bomb exploded near his vehicle outside Amarah, southeast of Baghdad.
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