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Jihadist Offensive in Iraq Sparks Mass Christian Exodus
Tens of thousands said to be fleeing for their lives as Islamic State fighters sweep across Kurdish area
Marwan Ibrahim / The Times of Israel
KIRKOUK, Iraq (AFP) — Jihadists took over Iraq’s largest Christian town and surrounding areas on Thursday and sent tens of thousands of panicked residents fleeing towards autonomous Kurdistan, officials and witnesses said.
Islamic State (IS) militants moved into Qaraqosh and several other towns overnight after the withdrawal of Kurdish peshmerga troops, who are stretched thin across several fronts in Iraq, residents said.
“I now know that the towns of Qaraqosh, Tal Kayf, Bartella and Karamlesh have been emptied of their original population and are now under the control of the militants,” Joseph Thomas, the Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah, told AFP.
Qaraqosh is an entirely Christian town which lies between Mosul, the jihadists’ main hub in Iraq, and Arbil, the Kurdish region’s capital. It usually has a population of around 50,000.
read more at The Time of Israel:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/jihadist-offensive-sparks-mass-christian-exodus/
