When Islamic State (IS) militants swept through northern Iraq in
2014, some 200,000 Christians — unarmed, thus defenseless — fled.
They had relied for protection on Kurdish Peshmerga forces that
disappeared as ISIS advanced through the Nineveh Plain—a Biblical
region, home to Assyrian and Chaldean faithful centuries before Prophet
Mohammed was born.
Over the last two years, Iraqi Christians have raised small, but
fierce, fighting forces of their own, now poised to do battle against
IS for the region's largest city, Mosul—and a chance to claim a safe
haven in the country's north.
The Babylon Brigade is the largest formation, capable of mobilizing over 1,500 soldiers.
It's "the poster boy of Christian units" according to Dr. Abbas
Kadhim, Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute,
SAIS-Johns Hopkins University.
"They aren't just a symbolic presence," said Kadhim. "They have
done a great job fighting to retake Anbar and Fallujah, so I assume in
Nineveh they will be even more present."
When the Iraqi military retook Fallujah from IS in June, the
Babylon Brigade tweeted: "We are not just a #Christian group. We are for
all #Iraqi against #ISIS"
The Babylon Brigade is fighting as part of the Hashd,
or Popular Mobilization Units, a network of smaller, fighting forces,
considered more enthusiastic—and successful—than many Iraqi army
companies.
Most Hashd soldiers are Shia Muslims; October is the
first month of the Islamic calendar and part of a sacred Shia practice,
the Mourning of Muharram.
So the battle for Mosul coincides with Islamic holy days, especially practiced by Shia Muslims.
"You want to talk about martyrdom for a great cause? This would
be it," said Kadhim, explaining that Muharram includes the Day of
Ashura, [NOTE: October 10 this year] which marks the murder of Husayn
ibn Ali, Mohammed's grandson who "died for a principle."
Kadhim estimates approximately 1,500 Christian fighters will participate in Operation Fatah (conquest) against IS in Mosul, which he calls "a significant number."
Another newly commissioned fighting force is the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU).
NPU was founded in late 2014 to protect the land of indigenous
Christians divided between three main churches: Assyrian Church of the
East, Chaldean Catholic Church of Babylon, and Syriac Orthodox Church of
Antioch.
So far, over 500 soldiers are registered as NPU with others
volunteering or waiting for training. The Iraqi government formally
recognized it as part of the military command last March.
In Our Last Stand,
a 2016 film portraying the journey of an Assyrian-American teacher
through Iraq to Syria, NPU fighters are shown at a training camp.
One leader, Athra Kado, says, "Our main goal is gathering men to
be the force that protects our people. I will never flee or withdraw
because my family is behind me."
He continues, "Decade after decade. It started in Turkey
[Armenian genocide, 1915-1923], in Iran, than Simele [1933 slaughter of
Assyrians in Iraq.] Genocide after genocide. We can't handle it. This is
our last chance."
This year, the U.S. military and coalition forces began training
the NPU according to "Military Times" and Dr. Elmer Abbo, president of
the U.S.-based Nineveh Plain Defense Fund.
"For many years, I went to DC asking for help and they kept
ignoring us; I'm done doing that," Dr Abbo, a Christian
Assyrian-American, told the Washington Examiner.
"The American government will only help us to the extent that we
are part of their larger strategic interests, so the reason the U.S.
military is helping train our people is because we are helping to
liberate Ninevah."
He continued, "When we bring something to the table, that's when they help us."
Dr. Abbo is direct about what Assyrian fighters hope to gain:
"NPU's goal is to establish a Nineveh Plains province, independent of
the [neighboring] Kurdish Regional Government."
The Iraqi Council of Ministers endorsed a plan for three new provinces, including one on the Nineveh Plain, in April 2014.
So does the Republican Party's convention platform, which calls
for "the creation of a safe haven in northern Iraq to protect those
ethnic and religious minorities continuing to face genocide at the hands
of ISIS."
Asked about Christian persecution in the Middle East, Trump
campaign adviser, Marjorie Dannenfelser observed, "It should be an
everyday question, speaking as a Catholic and as a founder of the
pro-life coalition, it should be an everyday question on all of our
minds."
In Defense of Christians (IDC) successfully persuaded the House
of Representatives to designate Islamic militant attacks on Christians
and other religious minorities in the Middle East genocide by unanimous
vote last March.
IDC president Toufic Baaklini observed, "We are advised by
displaced Christians living in camps in Erbil [Kurdistan], who want to
stay in Iraq, they want to fight, and their force is getting larger and
larger."
Baaklini continued, "They want an area where they can live in
peace, live in their own homes, be free. We want to help them remain.
For Christianity, this is where it all began."
Last month, Reps Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) and Anna Eshoo
(D-CA)—the only Assyrian-American in Congress—introduced a resolution
supporting a semi-autonomous multi-ethnic province in northern Iraq.
But Robert Nicholson, executive director of the Philos Project,
which promotes positive Christian engagement in the Middle East worries
about the aftermath of Mosul's liberation: "Christian units are fighting
as part of the coalition against ISIS so they are there, [but] in terms
of Christians being involved in a post-IS reorganization of Iraq, it's
insufficient and inadequate and they have not been brought into
discussions in any serious way."
He added, "Not only Christians—the Yazidis and other religious
minorities who have been victims of genocide, need to be asked, 'What do
you want exactly, and how can we help you get what you want, so your
people can come back and resettle and rebuild.'"
Victor Gaetan is Senior International Correspondent at the
National Catholic Register and a contributor to Foreign Affairs
magazine.