Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Mosul (Agenzia Fides) - While US-led air strikes against the positions of the Islamic State (Daesh) intensify in the area of Mosul and Nineveh Plain, a growing number of military jihadist leaders leave the region, aimed at joining the militia linked to Daesh operating in Libya and Yemen. The news, relaunched by Kurdish ARA News, comes from Rafaat al Zarari, director of Nineveh Media Network, who in turn collects data from his sources still operating in Mosul. In the last two weeks - refers al Zatari - at least twenty top militia leaders of the Islamic State have abandoned the Nineveh Plain and have left Iraq, perhaps to avoid that the military jihad apparatus is compromised by the intensification of military operations of the anti-Daesh coalition.
The Nineveh Plain is home to many towns and villages with a Christian majority, abandoned by the population between spring and summer 2014, with mass emigration caused by the advance of the jihadi militias. In recent days (see Fides 20/01/2016), the air strikes carried out by the international coalition of Mosul - conquered by Daesh in June 2014 - hit the Syriac Orthodox Church dedicated to Our Virgin Mary, in the market area. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 22/01/2016)
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