Photo by James (Jim) Gordon
At the end of last October, Iraqi forces were advancing to fight ISIS in an Iraqi village, known as Mosul.
According to CNN, “Kurdish Peshmerga forces are within five miles (eight kilometers) of Mosul, commanders said Sunday, after days of fighting and sweeping territorial gains in the operation to free the key Iraqi city from ISIS control.” As the Iraqi forces moved toward Mosul, they liberated other villages in the area.
Reuters reports, “A military statement said Iraqi units entered the center of Qaraqosh, a mainly Christian town about 20 km (13 miles) southeast of Mosul, and were carrying out mop-up operations across the town.”
Iraqi forces found churches and houses destroyed and vandalized. This surprised and grieved many Christians.
The Los Angeles Times explains, “Elsewhere in the town, the Jihadists had left their mark. They had used a stencil ‘Property of Islamic State’ on houses and businesses they had confiscated from Christian owners, underlining the stamp with the Arabic letter for ‘n’ for Nasarani, a Koranic term for Christians that some consider a pejorative.”
The fighting for Christian cities caused even more residents to flee the city of Mosul.
Per Reuters, “Some 1.5 million residents remain and worse-case scenarios forecasts see up to a million being uprooted, according to the United Nations. U.N. aid agencies said the fighting has so far forced about 6,000 to flee from their homes.”
In addition to sending out native missionaries, Christian Aid also provides aid to those who are in need in tangible ways. Christian Aid Mission was planning on helping refugees from the battle in Mosul and to help people regardless of religion in order to show them Christ’s love.
Christian Aid Missions reports, “‘The people who flee to Kurdistan will be somebody who’s seen their husbands or kids killed or their daughters enslaved,’ he said. ‘They will come without supplies and will sleep in the street. They’re going to have kids who haven’t eaten for days. We need to show them something different from how they lived under Islam.’”
Please pray for the refugees that have fled Mosul, that they see Christ’s joy through the missionaries of Christian Aid Mission.
CNN: Mosul: Peshmerga forces 5 miles from city in ISIS Battle
Reuters: Iraqi army drives Islamic State from Christian region near Mosul
Los Angeles Times: ‘This is Our Land’: Christians return to Iraqi town recaptured from Islamic State
Christian Aid Mission: Battle for Mosul Portends Humanitarian Disaster
