ishtartv.com - washingtonexaminer.com
By Victor
Gaetan, 10/13/16
When
Islamic State (IS) militants swept through northern Iraq in 2014, some 200,000
Christians — unarmed, thus defenseless — fled.
They
had relied for protection on Kurdish Peshmerga forces that disappeared as ISIS
advanced through the Nineveh Plain—a Biblical region, home to Assyrian and
Chaldean faithful centuries before Prophet Mohammed was born.
Over
the last two years, Iraqi Christians have raised small, but fierce, fighting
forces of their own, now poised to do battle against IS for the region's
largest city, Mosul—and a chance to claim a safe haven in the country's north.
The
Babylon Brigade is the largest formation, capable of mobilizing over 1,500
soldiers.
It's
"the poster boy of Christian units" according to Dr. Abbas Kadhim,
Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute, SAIS-Johns
Hopkins University.
"They
aren't just a symbolic presence," said Kadhim. "They have done a
great job fighting to retake Anbar and Fallujah, so I assume in Nineveh they
will be even more present."
When
the Iraqi military retook Fallujah from IS in June, the Babylon Brigade
tweeted: "We are not just a #Christian group. We are for all #Iraqi
against #ISIS"
he
Babylon Brigade is fighting as part of the Hashd, or Popular Mobilization
Units, a network of smaller, fighting forces, considered more enthusiastic—and
successful—than many Iraqi army companies.
Most
Hashd soldiers are Shia Muslims; October is the first month of the Islamic
calendar and part of a sacred Shia practice, the Mourning of Muharram.
So
the battle for Mosul coincides with Islamic holy days, especially practiced by
Shia Muslims.
"You
want to talk about martyrdom for a great cause? This would be it," said
Kadhim, explaining that Muharram includes the Day of Ashura, [NOTE: October 10
this year] which marks the murder of Husayn ibn Ali, Mohammed's grandson who
"died for a principle."
Kadhim
estimates approximately 1,500 Christian fighters will participate in Operation Fatah
(conquest) against IS in Mosul, which he calls "a significant
number."
"They
are sacrificing for patria, homeland, not just privileges," Abbas said.
"After all this is over, Iraq should recognize the Christians, especially.
They have experienced a double 'cleansing' by IS — religious and ethnic."
Another
newly commissioned fighting force is the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU).
NPU
was founded in late 2014 to protect the land of indigenous Christians divided
between three main churches: Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic
Church of Babylon, and Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch.
So
far, over 500 soldiers are registered as NPU with others volunteering or
waiting for training. The Iraqi government formally recognized it as part of
the military command last March.
In Our Last Stand, a 2016
film portraying the journey of an Assyrian-American teacher through Iraq to
Syria, NPU fighters are shown at a training camp.
One
leader, Athra Kado, says, "Our main goal is gathering men to be the force
that protects our people. I will never flee or withdraw because my family is
behind me."
He
continues, "Decade after decade. It started in Turkey [Armenian genocide,
1915-1923], in Iran, than Simele [1933 slaughter of Assyrians in Iraq.]
Genocide after genocide. We can't handle it. This is our last chance."
This
year, the U.S. military and coalition forces began training the NPU according
to "Military Times" and Dr. Elmer Abbo, president of the U.S.-based
Nineveh Plain Defense Fund.
"For
many years, I went to DC asking for help and they kept ignoring us; I'm done
doing that," Dr Abbo, a Christian Assyrian-American, told the Washington
Examiner.
"The
American government will only help us to the extent that we are part of their
larger strategic interests, so the reason the U.S. military is helping train
our people is because we are helping to liberate Ninevah."
He
continued, "When we bring something to the table, that's when they help
us."
Dr.
Abbo is direct about what Assyrian fighters hope to gain: "NPU's goal is
to establish a Nineveh Plains province, independent of the [neighboring]
Kurdish Regional Government."
The
Iraqi Council of Ministers endorsed a plan for three new provinces, including
one on the Nineveh Plain, in April 2014.
So
does the Republican Party's convention platform, which calls for "the
creation of a safe haven in northern Iraq to protect those ethnic and religious
minorities continuing to face genocide at the hands of ISIS."
Asked
about Christian persecution in the Middle East, Trump campaign adviser,
Marjorie Dannenfelser observed, "It should be an everyday question,
speaking as a Catholic and as a founder of the pro-life coalition, it should be
an everyday question on all of our minds."
In
Defense of Christians (IDC) successfully persuaded the House of Representatives
to designate Islamic militant attacks on Christians and other religious
minorities in the Middle East genocide by unanimous vote last March.
IDC
president Toufic Baaklini observed, "We are advised by displaced
Christians living in camps in Erbil [Kurdistan], who want to stay in Iraq, they
want to fight, and their force is getting larger and larger."
Baaklini
continued, "They want an area where they can live in peace, live in their
own homes, be free. We want to help them remain. For Christianity, this is
where it all began."
Last
month, Reps Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA)—the only
Assyrian-American in Congress—introduced a resolution supporting a
semi-autonomous multi-ethnic province in northern Iraq.
But
Robert Nicholson, executive director of the Philos Project, which promotes
positive Christian engagement in the Middle East worries about the aftermath of
Mosul's liberation: "Christian units are fighting as part of the coalition
against ISIS so they are there, [but] in terms of Christians being involved in
a post-IS reorganization of Iraq, it's insufficient and inadequate and they
have not been brought into discussions in any serious way."
He
added, "Not only Christians—the Yazidis and other religious minorities who
have been victims of genocide, need to be asked, 'What do you want exactly, and
how can we help you get what you want, so your people can come back and
resettle and rebuild.'"
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