Iraqi Christians were victims of IS war crimes
Barnabas Fund, 8 December 2022 (excerpts)
Iraqi Christians were victims of war crimes committed by Islamic State after the jihadists seized around a third of the country in 2014, investigators reported on 1 December.
The United Nations team said evidence collected in Iraq supports preliminary findings that Islamic State seized Christian-owned properties, looted and destroyed churches and subjected believers to sexual violence, forced conversions and enslavement.
The team has identified leading IS members who seized control in August 2014 of three predominantly Christian towns in the Nineveh plains.
It has also started collecting evidence on crimes committed against the Christian community in Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul.
The 26-page report also updated the team’s investigations into attacks on the Yazidi community and other minority communities.
Islamic State was officially declared defeated in Iraq in 2017 following a three-year reign of terror.
In February 2022, factories, shops and parcels of land seized from Christians and Sabeans were restored and given back to their rightful owners.
An estimated 75% of Iraq’s Christians (around 1.5 million in 1990) have left the country in the last 30 years because of anti-Christian hostility and violence.