Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil in Iraq says about 9,000 Christian families have returned to their homes on the Nineveh Plains after fleeing a decade ago, when ISIS took the region. In June 2014, the Islamist extremist group captured Mosul and the villages to the north and east of the city, prompting a mass exodus of Christians and Yazidis. Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Archbishop Warda noted the occupation of Mosul left other Christians on the Nineveh Plains vulnerable, and on August 6, 2014, prompted by further ISIS aggression, the entire Christian population fled to Iraqi Kurdistan.
Read MoreIraq recalled its ambassador from Tehran for consultations and summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires in Baghdad on Tuesday in protest over Iranian strikes on northern Iraq that killed several civilians overnight, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said. The Iranian attack was “a blatant violation” of Iraq’s sovereignty and “strongly contradicts the principles of good neighborliness and international law, and threatens the security of the region,” the ministry said in a statement.
Read MoreThe ongoing conflict in the Middle East suffered an escalation recently as Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched ballistic missiles targeting a residential area of Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). The regional security council reports that at least four perished and six were injured in the eight blasts that rocked the area.
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