Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (L) welcomes Yunadem Kanna -- one of only two Christian deputies in the Iraqi parliament -- ahead of talks in Baghdad. Maliki has pledged to protect Christians after a spate of killings in Mosul.(AFP/Iraq PM's Office)
This week saw another surge of genocide against the dwindling number of Christians still living in Iraq. Most of the attacks have occured in the northern city of Mosul, despite the government's increased security measures in the area.
To its credit, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki deployed 1,000 armed policemen into the area to protect the Christians today; however, analysts claim that security conditions in Mosul have been deteriorating (unlike in Bagdad and Basra).
Over 3,000 Christians have fled what Mosul province's governor, Duraid Kashmula, calls "the worst violence perpetrated against them in five years". The Wall Street Journal reports: "The (violence) is the fiercest campaign against Christians since 2003," Kashmula told AFP Saturday. "Among those killed over the past 11 days were a doctor, an engineer and a handicapped person." The exodus came as Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako had called on the U.S. military as well as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government to protect Christians and other minorities in the face of a series of deadly attacks.
Since the beginning of the war, a third of Iraq's 800,000 Christians have fled the country, and at least 200 have been killed, said Chaldean archbishop Louis Sako.
The rash of violence follows the abductions and murder of Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, Paul Faraj Rahho last March, whose body was found two weeks after his kidnapping in a shallow grave.
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