Virtually the whole of the largest Christian community in Iraq has been forced into exile by fighting between Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) terrorists and Kurdish armed forcers, according to a local Dominican sister.
The town of Karakush-Baghdeda, 30 kilometres north of Mosul and home to 40,000 Christians, found itself in the crossfire between ISIS and the Kurdish army on 25 June. According to a message from Sr Maria Hanna OP, general prioress of the Dominican Sisters of St Catherine of Siena in Karakush, all but 100 or so townspeople fled and scattered to neighbouring towns, with some priests remaining. The sisters were among the last people to leave the town yesterday during a brief ceasefire, and fighting is reported to be continuing.