Kirkuk – AsiaNews — The US troop pullout is creating a \u201cvacuum\u2019 that could end up in \u201ccivil war\u201d and \u201cIraq\u2019s division\u201d, said Mgr Louis Sako, archbishop of Kirkuk, as he confirmed the death of five Iraqi Christians killed in late March and early April. Iraq\u2019s \u201cethnic and religious groups have not become truly …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-assyrian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Kirkuk – AsiaNews —<\/SPAN> The US troop pullout is creating a \u201cvacuum\u2019 that could end up in \u201ccivil war\u201d and \u201cIraq\u2019s division\u201d, said Mgr Louis Sako, archbishop of Kirkuk, as he confirmed the death of five Iraqi Christians killed in late March and early April. Iraq\u2019s \u201cethnic and religious groups have not become truly reconciled and the security situation remains fragile,\u201d the archbishop said.
\u201cThe Army and local police are not able to maintain law and order in the country,\u201d he added. For this reason, the departure of US troops could \u201clead to further violence,\u201d a view made the more cogent by the recent spate of killings in the Christian community Sabah Aziz Solaiman, 71, was killed during a robbery on the morning of 31 March in Kirkuk. He was murdered in his own home in cold blood after bandits had broken in and taken everything of value on which they could lay their hands.
His wife was spared the same fate because she had just gone to work. On 1 April Nimroud Khodir Moshi was gunned down in front of his restaurant in Baghdad\u2019s neighbourhood of Mashtal. His murderers then fled the scene without leaving a trace.
The next day two sisters, 47 and 60 years of age respectively, were killed in the al-Dora neighbourhood, also in the capital. Finally, the latest deadly incident took place in al-Madida in Mosul, when Abdul Aziz Elias Aziz, an electrical generator repairman, was shot to death in front of his workshop. For the archbishop of Kirkuk these tragic events are cause for concern.
Such violence could drive even more Christians into exile and fuel the \u201cnever-ending\u201d exodus that is threatening the 2,000-year old community. Moreover, as many Christians flee, those who do remain find themselves in greater danger. \u201cAs Holy Week begins, let us pray for peace and stability in Iraq,\u201d said Bishop Sako. \u201cLet us pray that the blood of our martyrs may restore peace.
The Crucified and Risen Christ calls upon us to persevere and maintain our presence and witness.\u201d Church sources in Mosul recently warned AsiaNews that Christians are increasingly in danger of attacks. \u201cThe community is being targeted by organised crime groups,\u201d a Chaldean Catholic bishop said. \u201cThey are going after Christians because of their commercial activities, attracted by the money and wealth the latter have built up in a lifetime of toil and sweat.\u201d
In the past \u201cthese thugs were covered and protected by al-Qaeda.\u201d Now that the \u201cideological and confessional\u201d aspect has faded away, \u201cordinary criminals and organised crime are rearing their head, drawn by money, ready to kill in cold blood.\u201d
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