BEIRUT (AP) — The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has strongly denounced the Islamic State group’s beheading of a group of Egyptian Christian hostages in Libya.
In a speech to hundreds of his supporters in southern Beirut Monday, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah says the CIA and Israel’s Mossad are behind the extremist group, which serves their interests.
He claims Israel is the only country which has not been affected and does not consider the group a threat.
The Iranian-backed Shiite Hezbollah group, which has sent thousands of its fighters to Syria to help shore up President Bashar Assad’s forces, has positioned itself as a vanguard against Sunni extremists such as the Islamic State group.
Nasrallah called on regional governments to work together to confront IS, whose crimes “are a threat to the entire universe.”
BAKUFA, Iraq-- The flag of an Iraqi Christian minority party is hoisted high over the village of Bakufa in northern Iraq, less than a month after militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) were pushed out and the extremists' black banner was taken down.
The predominantly Christian Assyrian hamlet of 95 houses that once had about 500 people, located some 243 miles north of Baghdad, was overrun by the Islamic State group during its shocking blitz this summer, along with 22 other villages nearby.
In a counter-offensive, the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters swept in from the north, battling ISIS house-to-house. The fighting forced the villagers to flee to Kurdish towns and cities elsewhere in northern Iraq.
Once Bakufa was retaken, the Kurdish fighters helped set up the village militia, made up of about 70 volunteers and known as Dwekh Nawsha, or "self-sacrifice" in Assyrian.
The men of Dwekh Nawsha now patrol Bakufa round-the-clock, in the hope that the village stays free long enough so their families can return.
A member of the Dwekh Nawasha stood guard on a building rooftop, next to the flag of the Assyrian Patriotic Party, during a recent visit by The Associated Press.
A Dwekh Nawsha militia member sits on top of a tombstone inside a 200-year-old monastery in the Christian village of Bakufa in Iraq.
AP
"We found ourselves helpless," said Caesar Jacob, a deputy of to the Christian militia's commander. The 44-year-old electrician said the militiamen worked "side-by-side" with the peshmerga fighters but then gradually took over responsibility for their village.
"We must depend on ourselves to defend our land for now and the future," Jacob told the AP.
The militia commander, Albert Kisso, 47, said Christian territories in what is Iraq's Nineveh province needed their own protection and the forming of the militia was the logical outcome.
The Assyrians, an indigenous Christian group in Iraq descendant from the ancient Mesopotamians, are a Semitic people who speak an eastern Aramaic dialect. Along with the Chaldeans, they make up the largest Christian group in Iraq.
Bakufa is also the site of the 200-year old St. Gorgiz Monastery, which Kisso describes as a tribute to the "elegance of the Mesopotamian civilization" of their ancestors.
"It is the priority of Dwekh Nawsha to protect the sons of this region, as well as the region itself - including its monasteries, churches, artifacts," said Kisso, a longtime member of the Assyrian Patriotic Party.
In their onslaught, ISIS also targeted indigenous religious minorities across the country's north, including Christians and followers of the ancient Yazidi faith, forcing tens of thousands from their homes. The area's 120,000 Christians are mostly still in exile.
The Kurdish peshmerga fighters are proud of what they did for Bakufa.
"We came here ... to protect our Christian brothers and their homes," said Abdul Rahman Kawriny, the local peshmerga brigade commander. "There is constant cooperation and assistance. We are always together."
The Dwekh Nawsha militiamen spend the days patrolling the narrow village streets in bullet-proof vests, their insignia prominently displayed on their fatigues.
Relying on donations from Christian charities abroad and wealthier members of the Iraqi Assyrian community, the Christian fighters must supply their own weapons.
Those who do not own a weapon cannot join and many said that Dwekh Nawsha would have 250 men if only they had the needed firepower.
Article 3 of Syrian Constitution “The State shall respect all
religions, and ensure the freedom to perform all the rituals that
do not prejudice public order; The personal status of religious…
This was in response to the west’s demands that the Assad
government LEAVE not change and let more Sunni’s have
representation, Assad must LEAVE ( do we really want to make
another failed State in the Middle East???
Sunnis already had a much larger representation throughout the
government and military than most other ethnic and/or religious
groups in Syria.
.. Syria rewrote their constitution in 2012 in response to the sectarian Sunni Arab movement to overthrow the Assad regime. The main
movements at the start of the conflict in 2011…. that Al Jazera (a Sunni
Arab TV station) and the Western Media and the Main investors in this
enterprise is Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kuwait, Qatar, and UAE. CIA is doing
training and weapon supply. But by far the biggest influence was the
Sunni Arab Wahhabi backing/money. They actually have a Saudi Prince who
has been in Charge of the funding and campaign. The west is stupid enough
to believe these Sectarian and very militarized groups like Al Qaeda,
al Nusra, ISIL, FSA and so many others ….. of the 10 main groups and
another 30 smaller movements / militarized groups fighting the Assad
regime in Syria NONE are secular, None have anything but Sunni Arab
leadership. Yet Syria has a very long Christian heritage. Followers of
Jesus brother James founded their Christian Church in Syria long before
there was a Catholic Church. These Militant Sunni Arab groups have no
representation within their ranks presently for the Shia, Alawites, Yezidi,
Kurd, Turk, Uzbeks, Armenians, and many other faiths and ethnic groups
that the rebel forces would never allow a place in a Sunni Arab Syrian government.
In Dora, Iraq many Christians fled the area after al Qaeda had started to harass and kill local Christians and Muslims.
Many Christians have fled to Jordan, Syria, and to North Iraq (Kurdish region). Recently the Catholic Church in Dora has been reopened. Muslims and Christians, Sunni and Shia, all worked together to reopen the Church. I know many people I talk with here in the USA find it hard to believe that there was Christians living in Iraq. Well there is also many other religions represented by the population including Hebrews. In fact there is also some very interesting religions in Iraq. The Yazidi are interesting and found mostly in Northern Iraq. In Southeast Iraq there is religious followers of John the Baptist, they still do the Baptisms in the same river for the past 2,000 + years (I am not totally sure on the date - when was John The Baptist ??). Anyways very interesting stuff and I hope you read a Michael Yons latest Article "Come Home" Click here..
Here is a portion of Michael Yon's latest Dispatch from Dora, Iraq.
"LTC Stephen Michael at St John’s. LTC Michael told me today that when al Qaeda came to Dora, they began harassing Christians first, charging them “rent.” It was the local Muslims, according to LTC Michael, who first came to him for help to protect the Christians in his area. That’s right. LTC Michael told me more than once that the Muslims reached out to him to protect the Christians from al Qaeda. Real Muslims here are quick to say that al Qaeda members are not true Muslims. From charging “rent,” al Qaeda’s harassment escalated to killing Christians, and also Muslims. Untold thousands of Christians and Muslims fled Baghdad in the wake of the darkness of civil war. Most of the Christians are gone now; having fled to Syria, Jordan or Northern Iraq........." M. Yon
In Dora, Iraq many Christians fled the area after al Qaeda had started to harass and kill local Christians and Muslims.
"Today, Muslims mostly filled the front pews of St John’s. Muslims who want their Christian friends and neighbors to come home. The Christians who might see these photos likely will recognize their friends here. The Muslims in this neighborhood worry that other people will take the homes of their Christian neighbors, and that the Christians will never come back. And so they came to St John’s today in force, and they showed their faces, and they said, “Come back to Iraq. Come home.” They wanted the cameras to catch it. They wanted to spread the word: Come home. Muslims keep telling me to get it on the news. “Tell the Christians to come home to their country Iraq.”" Michael Yon
Recently the Catholic Church in Dora has been reopened. Muslims and Christians, Sunni and Shia, all worked together to reopen the Church. I know many people I talk with here in the USA find it hard to believe that there was Christians living in Iraq. Well there is also many other religions represented by the population including Hebrews. In fact there is also some very interesting religions in Iraq. The Yazidi are interesting and found mostly in Northern Iraq. In Southeast Iraq there is religious followers of John the Baptist, they still do the Baptisms in the same river for the past 2,000 + years (I am not totally sure on the date - when was John The Baptist ??). Many Christians had fled to Jordan, Syria, and to North Iraq (Kurdish region) after al Qaeda had taken control over the area. - Ian Bach
Anyways very interesting stuff and I hope you read Michael Yons latest Article including many pictures of the event. It's very heartwarming and the mothers always want pictures of their children. There is also an Iraqi interputer nickname "ice" he is an Iraqi Christian, and you can see the pride in this community. "Come Home" Click here..
Here is a portion of Michael Yon's latest Dispatch from Dora, Iraq.
"LTC Stephen Michael at St John’s. LTC Michael told me today that when al Qaeda came to Dora, they began harassing Christians first, charging them “rent.” It was the local Muslims, according to LTC Michael, who first came to him for help to protect the Christians in his area. That’s right. LTC Michael told me more than once that the Muslims reached out to him to protect the Christians from al Qaeda. Real Muslims here are quick to say that al Qaeda members are not true Muslims. From charging “rent,” al Qaeda’s harassment escalated to killing Christians, and also Muslims. Untold thousands of Christians and Muslims fled Baghdad in the wake of the darkness of civil war. Most of the Christians are gone now; having fled to Syria, Jordan or Northern Iraq........." M. Yon
