Gunmen from the so-called Islamic State extremist group attacked a village northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 11 civilians and wounding six others, Iraqi security officials said. The officials said the attack occurred in the predominantly Shiite village of al-Rashad northeast of Baqouba in Diyala province. The circumstances of the attack were not immediately clear, […]
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Pope Francis has urged Iraqis to treat their Christian brothers as a precious resource to protect, not an “obstacle” to eliminate, as he opened the first papal visit to Iraq with a plea for tolerance and fraternity among Christians and Muslims. Francis brushed aside the coronavirus pandemic and security concerns to resume his globe-trotting papacy […]
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The Trump administration is expected to cut the number of US troops in Afghanistan almost in half to 2,500 by January 15, an official has said. The order would stop short of outgoing President Donald Trump’s goal to have all troops withdrawn by the end of the year, which had faced opposition from military and […]
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A U.N. investigative team that will collect and preserve evidence of acts by Islamic State in Iraq that may be war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide started work this week, nearly a year after the Security Council created it. At last September’s annual U.N. gathering of world leaders, the council unanimously adopted a British-drafted […]
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A growing number of migrants are finding jobs in Germany, according to data released on Tuesday that will give heart to supporters of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to let in hundreds of thousands of war refugees since 2015. Figures last week also showed that German companies have managed to attract more apprentices to on-the-job training […]
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About half the 2.6 million people displaced in Iraq after a three-year war with Islamic State militants are children and persisting violence hampers efforts to ease their suffering, the United Nations said on Friday. While the Baghdad government last month declared victory over Islamic State after wresting back almost all the territory IS seized in […]
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We have been highlighting the attacks and incitement against minority communities form some time. Just within the last 2 months, we highlighted Islamist extremism targeting members of Ahmaddiya communities in Pakistan. A few days ago, the small Christian community in Quetta, who were celebrating mass in the coming days to Christmas, were attacked and 9 […]
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Christians in the Iraqi town of Teleskof celebrated their Christmas traditions for the first time in three years, since Islamic State militants overran their town and forcibly displaced their community of 12,000. A hymn not heard in three years echoed throughout the Church of Saint George in Telesqaf, Iraq, on Monday… as Christians returned home […]
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‘The State’ was shown over 4 nights. The work of Peter Kosminsky, it is a harrowing insight into how faith is used and manipulated to create a framework of deadly destruction and intimidation and it also highlights the naivety of people caught up in a belief that the ‘Caliphate’ is finally here. ‘The State’ highlights […]
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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters on Tuesday it had “confirmed information” that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been killed. The report came just days after the Iraqi army recaptured the last sectors of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which Baghdadi’s forces overran almost exactly three years ago. Russia’s Defence […]
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