A member of the Nineveh Plain Protection Unit (NPU) on guard at a check-point in the city of Qaraqosh, also known as Al-Hamdaniya in Arabic.
The Wall Street Journal
IRAQ'S CHRISTIANS TURN TO MILITIA FOR PROTECTION
Text by Margherita Stancati and Ali A. Nabhan
QARAQOSH, Iraq—Two years ago, Mubarak Tuwaya fled when Islamic State militants made a triumphant charge through northern Iraq.
Now he is back in his hometown, wearing the uniform of an Iraqi militia that is helping drive out the extremists—and aiming to secure a place for Christians and other local minorities in Iraq’s future.
Capt. Tuwaya’s U.S.-trained force is made up of about 500 troops and 300 unpaid volunteers, most of them Assyrian Christians from Hamdaniya, a district east of Mosul that is home to Qaraqosh, Iraq’s largest Christian town.
The Iraqi army’s 9th Division captured the district with the militia’s support in late October, in the early days of the current U.S-backed campaign to retake Mosul, the Sunni extremist group’s last major stronghold in the country.
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The Mar Gorgis Church in Qaraqosh was damaged in the battle to recapture the town from Islamic State
Damaged caused to the Mar Gorgis church by ISIS, who destroyed all the churches in the city of Qaraqosh, also known as Al-Hamdaniya in Arabic
Mubarak Tuwaya, a commander in a militia protecting the area around the largest Christian town in Iraq, said “This is the land of our fathers, we have to defend it.”
An Iraqi Christian woman cried last month after seeing the damage to a shop her family ran in Qaraqosh, her hometown.
Residents of Qaraqosh walked last month through the town’s main market area, which was heavily damaged in the battle with Islamic State militants.