2000 Christian families flee Mosul

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Tel Kepe, in the upper left of this map is where ISIS and Kurds are fighting (AINA)

ISIS and Kurdish forces clashed yesterday at about 10 PM on the outskirts of Tel Kepe, an Assyrian town 13 miles north of Mosul. ISIS tried to take over a medicine factory about 1.5 miles west of Tel Kepe. ISIS terrorists were forced to go back after a short battle.

The latest count of the number of Assyrian families driven out of Mosul stands at 2,000.

The following report is from the Christian Aid Program Nohadra Iraq, an aid organization of the Assyrian Church of the East:

In Mosul:

All 30 churches and monasteries are under ISIS control

  • Crosses have been removed from all of them
  • Many of them have been burned, destroyed and looted
  • Many are been used as ISIS centers
  • The following are few examples:
    • St. Ephraim Syriac Orthodox Cathedral in Al Shurta district (East side of Mosul): ISIS converted it to a mosque and installed loudspeakers for call to prayers
    • Syriac Catholic church in the old part of Mosul was looted and torched
    • Mar Gewargis (St. George) monastery was looted
    • Mar Thomas (St. Thomas) Syriac Catholic historical and old church was looted after the doors were broken
    • Mar Behnam (St. Behnam) Syriac Catholic monastery in the Ancient Assyrian town of Nimrod is controlled by ISIS
    • religious Sunni, Shiite and Christian tombs have been destroyed, according to Sharia law
    • Shiite prayer mosques (Hussayniya) have been demolished

    All non-Sunni communities have been targeted by ISIS. Christian, Yazidi and Shiite religious sites have been destroyed. Turkish and Shabak Shiites have fled from their homes and villages.

    Nearly 80% of the residents of Baghdede (Hamdaniya/Qaraqosh) have returned after fleeing from fighting between ISIS and Kurds. Baghdede, with a population of 50,000, is 97% Assyrian. There is still a severe shortage of electricity and water which is still cut off. Residents are using wells for water.

    All municipal services have stopped.

    The same conditions exist for the Assyrian towns of Bartilla, Bashiqa and Bahzany.

Please pray for the Assyrian Christians in Iraq.–Assyrian International News Agency

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