An Iraqi nun displaced by the Islamic extremist group ISIS testified before Congress that Christians in her country are having their identity wiped from the earth.
Sister Diana Momeka told the House Foreign Affairs Committee she is one of 120,000 civilians who had to leave their homes and property behind to flee from the terrorists’ takeover of the Mosul region. She said that Iraqi Christians are in “dire need” of assistance to liberate their land.
Momeka said that Christians were the first to settle the Nineheh Plains and that the only Christians left in the area are the ones who were unable to escape the terrorists.
“Why should we leave our country? What have we done? The Christians of Iraq are the first people of the land,” Momeka said. “Uprooted and forcefully displaced, we have realized that ISIS’ plan is to evacuate the land of Christians and wipe the earth clean of any evidence that we existed. This is cultural and human genocide. The only Christians that remain in the Plain of Nineveh are those who are held hostage.”
Momeka admitted Christians have faced persecution for centuries, but that it’s currently worse than it’s ever been in the region.
“While our ancestors experienced all kinds of persecution, they stayed in their land, building a culture that has served humanity for the ages,” Momeka stated. “But the current persecution that our community is facing is the most brutal in our history. Not only have we been robbed of our homes, property and land, but our heritage is being destroyed as well. ISIS has and continues to demolish and bomb our churches, cultural artifacts and sacred places like Mar Behnam and his Sister Sara, a fourth century monastery, and St. George’s Monastery in Mosul.”
The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said that the United States is “certainly vulnerable” to the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) said those who support ISIS see them as a “winning organization” so the U.S. has no other choice but to completely defeat the group.
“The best strategy the U.S. can employ to defeat this is actually defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria so that the reality is conveyed that this is not a winning organization, it is a losing organization,” Johnson said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Johnson cited the recent failed attack on a cartoon contest in Texas as an example of ISIS supporters seeing them as “winning” despite the attack failing in its goal. Johnson said it’s also difficult because they can’t easily deal with those who are activity promoting ISIS.
“The problem is, what do you do with the not-guilty-yet? We do have laws, we have a Constitution, and it’s extremely difficult for law enforcement officials when you might have tens of thousands of sympathizers — how do you track them all?” Johnson asked.
Johnson said that up to 90,000 twitter accounts in the United States were promoting ISIS although Twitter has begun to delete them.
FBI Director James Comey said Thursday that the terrorists are trying to recruit “hundreds, maybe thousands” of potential terrorists in the U.S. Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the U.S. is in “more serious circumstances today than we were after 9/11.”
“Remember, back then we thought about al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan and a few other places? Well, we’ve seen al-Qaeda metastasize,” Ridge told CNN. “It is now a global scourge. And you have the ascendancy of ISIL. The combination of those two groups — their appeal to the lone wolfs and we see them acting in Belgium and in France and in Canada and the United States, so the threat factors and the nature of the threats are far more complicated and far more serious today than on Sept. 12, 2001.”
The terrorist group ISIS reportedly has a new commander after an airstrike severely wounded their previous leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Iraqi government advisor Hisham al Hashimi told Newsweek that al-Baghdadi was injured during a March airstrike and has not been able to return to day-to-day leadership of the terrorist group. Hashimi said that Abu Alaa Afri has been running the group in al-Baghdadi’s absence.
“After Baghdadi’s wounding, he [Afri] has begun to head up Daesh [arabic term for ISIS] with the help of officials responsible for other portfolios,” Hashimi said. “He will be the leader of Daesh if Baghdadi dies.”
“He was a physics teacher in Tal Afar [northwestern Iraqi city] in Nineveh, and has dozens of publications and religious (Shariah) studies of his own,” the government adviser said. “He is a follower of Abu Musaab al-Suri [prominent jihadi scholar].”
U.S. military officials say it’s next to impossible for them to be able to confirm that al-Baghdadi was seriously wounded despite the claim of the Iraqi official. Al-Baghdadi was rumored to have died in an airstrike in November before releasing a new recording condemning those who oppose ISIS.
The news comes on the heels of ISIS releasing another video last Sunday showing them beheading Christians from Ethiopia.
Islamic terrorist group ISIS is attempting to eliminate any Christian that speaks the ancient language Aramaic in an attempt to wipe out the language that was spoken by Christ.
The Associated Press reported that thousands of Christians in Syria have fled their homes in Syria because of the terrorists but that ISIS has placed a bounty on them. These Assyrians are so valued by ISIS that kidnapped Assyrians are being held for $100,000 each.
“Assyrians remain the last Aramaic-speaking people of the world. So the disappearance and displacement of these people pretty much spells the closing chapter of Aramaic use in the world,” Middle East historian Eden Naby told the AP.
Pockets of Assyrian communities existed in Turkey and Lebanon, but the majority of the Aramaic speaking Assyrians lived in Syria and Iraq. The communities belong to Eastern Rite churches that we’re founded by the apostles Thomas, Thaddeus and Bartholomew.
The community of Assyrians has fallen from 1.4 million to an estimated 400,000.
Middle East watchdogs say that ISIS is involved in a systematic cleansing of Assyrians although they do not acknowledge their actions.
“They don’t care what it’s called; they are just following their ideology and that means getting rid of churches and minorities. It is the Islamic State, and there’s no room for anyone else,” said MEMRI Director Steven Stalinsky.
“This has been going on for some time, a systematic campaign to rid the region of any vestiges of Christianity.”
The Islamic terrorist group ISIS has claimed responsibility for a bombing near the U.S. Consulate in the Kurdish Iraqi city of Irbil.
The terrorists said the consulate was their target.
Police said four people are dead and at least 18 people were injured by the car bomb. The U.S. State Department said that all Consulate personnel were safe.
Police told reporters that a small improvised bomb detonated in the area which was followed by a car moving toward the consulate. Security personnel began to fire on the car and when it was clear they would not make the consulate, the people within the car detonated their devices.
A witness reported a gun battle between the terrorists and police.
The blast took place across the street from a row of bars, cafes and shops frequented by consular employees.
“The United States will continue to stand with the people of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and all Iraqis as we work together in confronting these terrorist acts and towards our shared goal of degrading and defeating (ISIS),” the State Department said in a statement.
The Middle East Media Research Institute is reporting that the terrorist group ISIS has destroyed a Christian graveyard in Mosul.
Pictures of the terrorists smashing headstones in Mosul were posted online titled “Leveling Graves and Erasing Pagan Symbols.”
“The April 16 destruction of Christian graves in Mosul, Iraq by the Islamic State (ISIS) is part of the organization’s ongoing campaign against Christianity, in the Middle East and throughout the Muslim world,” said Steven Stalinsky, executive director of The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
The terrorists claim that Islamic teaching requires them to destroy any grave higher than ground level. Images on the graves must also be destroyed.
“It is important to note that ISIS is documenting its destruction and desecration of Christian sites and its attacks on Christian communities, and on other minorities’ sites and communities, and is disseminating these images worldwide via social media,” Stalinsky told Fox News. “By doing this, ISIS is not only showcasing what it is doing, but is also mocking the West by demonstrating that it is doing so freely, with no one trying to stop it.”
Mosul has been under the control of the terrorists since June 2014.
A former model and DJ from Australia that no one knew was fighting for the terrorist group ISIS in Syria has been killed.
The parents of Sharky Jama were informed of their son’s death via text message on Monday according to the Somali Australian Council of Victoria.
Hussein Harakow of the SACV told CNN that Jama had disappeared in August of last year with a former business student named Yusuf Yusuf. He had been living in the city of Falluja. Despite making pro-ISIS comments on social media, his family had no idea he was fighting on the front lines with the terrorists.
“He never explained what’s happening over there or what he’s doing,” Harakow told CNN. “The family lived a simple life. They never discussed these sorts of things.”
The news of the young man’s death comes as Australian leaders are expressing concerns about radicalized residents returning from the Middle East. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott addressed the media after the reports of Jama’s death.
“I have a very simple message for those who might be thinking of going overseas to join these terrorist groups: Don’t,” he said. “They are death cults. … They are not about religion, they are just about death, and it’s just as likely to be your death as anyone else’s death.”
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said that as many as 90 Australians were fighting with ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
A horrifically painful and potentially fatal skin disease is reportedly breaking out among the members of the terrorist group ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Leishmaniasis is spread through the bite of female sand fleas. It causes open lesions on the skin that eat away at flesh. Without medical treatment, the disease can be fatal. The final stages of the disease attack the spleen and liver along with destroying red blood cells.
Medical centers in the region have closed because of the terrorists. Doctors Without Borders had clinics in the region to treat the disease that was almost at epidemic levels before their departure but it was deemed unsafe for their staff to continue operations.
However, the London Daily Mirror reported that many of the terrorists are refusing to accept medical help for their infections, contributing to the spread among the terrorists fighting the Iraqi army.
The disease is common in areas where people suffer from extreme poverty, malnutrition and deforestation. The disease gained international exposure in 2008 when a British TV host contracted it on a shoot and was hospitalized for three weeks to fight the disease including rounds of chemotherapy.
The Iraqi army has declared victory in their battle to retake the city of Tikrit from the Islamic extremist group ISIS.
Troops are working to clear out the last pockets of terrorist support within the city but Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi went to the city and raised an Iraqi flag over the city’s center.
“Most of Tikrit today is liberated, only small parts remain [outside our control],” Interior Minister Mohammed al-Ghabban told reporters.
The Prime Minister attributed their success to taking the terrorist group by surprise.
“We managed to take (ISIS) by surprise,” the Prime Minister said. “And our air force … in addition to coalition air force, helping Iraqi forces, managed to deal severe blows to ISIS and the enemies of Iraq. And our ground forces with the blood of Iraqis, Iraqis alone with their own blood, were able to liberate this land.”
The battle for the hometown of Saddam Hussein has taken a month and been the biggest offensive against the terrorist outfit. The attack had been stalled until the United States launched an air offensive against terrorist headquarters and weapons storage centers in the city.
The army now plans to focus on recapturing Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq.
Iraqi Special Forces are advancing on Tikrit, driving out the terrorist group ISIS from what had been considered a major win for the terrorists.
The advance has been assisted by the U.S. airstrikes against key parts of the terrorist’s defense network within the city. The attacks were the first major air assault by U.S. forces in several weeks.
“The Iraqi and coalition air forces conduct strikes in order to remove the enemy and then our forces advance,” said General Tahsin Ibrahim Sadiq. “When the attacking forces advance, they clear any pockets of resistance and allow for the rest of our forces to move in and barricade further ahead.”
Officials say the airstrikes are also targeting ISIS leadership’s command locations.
More than 20,000 Iraqi troops and paramilitary groups are involved in the Tikrit offensive.
The assault came as two Shi’ite militias withdrew from the battle because the United States demanded that Iranian officials and Iranian troops withdraw from the battle. The militias are protesting that U.S. is forbidding Iranian involvement.
