IRBIL, Iraq: As operations to retake the militant-held city of Mosul ramp up, Iraqi Christians displaced from the area by the Daesh group say that even if the militants are defeated militarily, the country will not be safe for minorities.
Qaraqosh, the biggest Christian town on the Nineveh plains in Iraq’s north, fell to Daesh more than two years ago and remains under militant control. Most of its displaced inhabitants are living in camps in Iraq’s Kurdish region. Hundreds of others fled to neighboring countries, Europe, the United States and further afield.
On the edge of Irbil’s historically Christian neighborhood of Ankawa, 1,200 identical white trailers arranged in neat rows shelter some 5,000 people. A handful of families here say they will return home the day their town is liberated. But many say they would rather leave for abroad. Despite the string of military defeats suffered by Daesh, they say the militants’ incursion into Iraq has thrown the future of the country’s minority groups into further uncertainty.
“If organized migration were possible, then I can say that 90 percent of the inhabitants of this camp would leave,” said camp manager Father Emanuel Adel Kelo.
Raad Bahnam Samaan, his wife and five children fled their home in Qaraqosh in early August 2014, joining the 150,000 Iraqi Christians who left towns and villages around Mosul for areas under Kurdish control. In the face of Daesh advance, Kurdish forces — known as the Peshmerga — largely withdrew from the outskirts of Mosul, and the towns and villages fell rapidly into the militants’ hands.
After months of living in cramped quarters in a dusty camp for displaced civilians, Samaan and his family tried to leave the country through a United Nations resettlement program but without success.
Samaan says the more than two years of being stuck in limbo has dulled his sense of optimism.
“There is always hope,” he said of returning home, “but when? Nobody knows. It might be a year, two years, a day, a couple of days. Three or four years from now if we go home there won’t be anything left of our house.”
Christians once constituted a sizeable minority in Iraq but their numbers have dwindled since the 2003 US-led invasion as many have emigrated to the West to escape violence.
“I see no future for us (here),” Samaan said.
His son, Iva, 25, is engaged to be married but the camp is at capacity and he can’t secure a private trailer to share with his wife to be.
“The boys are growing up,” Samaan said, “how can I secure their future?“
When Samaan reflects on what life may be like in a liberated Mosul, he says he worries the upheaval caused by Daesh will have strained sectarian tensions in Iraq beyond repair, making enemies of people who were once his neighbors.
“We’ll still be afraid. I will go to Mosul and I will be afraid because they will say, here comes the Christian,” he said.
Christians say defeating Daesh won’t make Iraq safe for them
Christians say defeating Daesh won’t make Iraq safe for them
Iran temporarily closes airspace to most flights
WASHINGTON: Iran temporarily closed its airspace to all flights except international ones to and from Iran with official permission at 5:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to a notice posted on the Federal Aviation Administration’s website.
The prohibition is set to last for more than two hours until 7:30 p.m. ET, or 0030 GMT, but could be extended, the notice said. The United States was withdrawing some personnel from bases in the Middle East, a US official said on Wednesday, after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had warned neighbors it would hit American bases if Washington strikes.
Missile and drone barrages in a growing number of conflict zones represent a high risk to airline traffic. India’s largest airline, IndiGo said some of its international flights would be impacted by Iran’s sudden airspace closure. A flight by Russia’s Aeroflot bound for Tehran returned to Moscow after the closure, according to tracking data from Flightradar24.
Earlier on Wednesday, Germany issued a new directive cautioning the country’s airlines from entering Iranian airspace, shortly after Lufthansa rejigged its flight operations across the Middle East amid escalating tensions in the region.
The United States already prohibits all US commercial flights from overflying Iran and there are no direct flights between the countries. Airline operators like flydubai and Turkish Airlines have canceled multiple flights to Iran in the past week. “Several airlines have already reduced or suspended services, and most carriers are avoiding Iranian airspace,” said Safe Airspace, a website run by OPSGROUP, a membership-based organization that shares flight risk information.
“The situation may signal further security or military activity, including the risk of missile launches or heightened air defense, increasing the risk of misidentification of civil traffic.” Lufthansa said on Wednesday that it would bypass Iranian and Iraqi airspace until further notice while it would only operate day flights to Tel Aviv and Amman from Wednesday until Monday next week so that crew would not have to stay overnight.
Some flights could also be canceled as a result of these actions, it added in a statement. Italian carrier ITA Airways, in which Lufthansa Group is now a major shareholder, said that it would similarly suspend night flights to Tel Aviv until Tuesday next week.
