US-led air strikes will kill innocent people instead of wiping out Islamic State (IS or ISIS) jihadists, the most senior Catholic leader in Iraq has warned, as reports emerged of a crisis in the capital, Baghdad.
Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako attacked the US-led bombing campaign, warning that it risked Iraqi civilians’ lives and wrecked what infrastructure remained.
“The Americans have already done this: they destroyed the country and did not rebuild it. The most serious part of it all is that now everyone is saying the war is going to go on for years,” he told the Vatican Insider website.
“This sends out two different and very dangerous messages simultaneously. The message to jihadists is: don’t worry, you have plenty of time to get organised, get more money together and enlist more paid militants. The message to the refugees is: this situation’s going to go on for years, the only future you have is away from here, away from your homes. It’s best if you leave if you can,” he said.
Meanwhile Canon Andrew White, the Anglican vicar working in Baghdad, told of the “immense fear” of those who lived in the capital as militants advanced to within miles of the city.
"We are at a crisis point. People know ISIS are coming nearer. People are being killed by the [air] attacks of the coalition," he told Sky News.
Civilians had been killed and people were too frightened to leave their homes, he added.
Earlier he published a note on Facebook saying: “All the military airstrikes are doing nothing. If ever we needed your prayer it is now.”
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