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Iraqi archbishop, priests flee to villages amid jihadist advance

June 13, 2014

Archbishop Emil Shimoun Nona, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul, has fled Iraq’s 2nd-largest city after its seizure by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, a jihadist group active in Iraq and Syria.

“Jihadist militants control the city and the situation is calm,” he told the Fides news agency. “But we do not know who they are and what they want to do now.”

“What I can say,” he added, “is that what has happened is a mystery. It is not known how soldiers and police managed to leave the city in less than an hour, leaving weapons and means of transport. All this raises many questions.”

Archbishop Nona said that he and his priests have found shelter in villages. One Mosul church, “depredated by gangs of robbers ... while the city was captured,” is now being protected by Mosul Muslims, he added.

 


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  • Posted by: skall391825 - Jun. 14, 2014 7:40 PM ET USA

    So long as there is an American Democrat party which from time to time welds power to undo victory, and which is aided and abetted by the "Catholic" Justice and Peace crowd, the forces of Hell will have free reign around the world to murder, rape and torture. See especially the cost in blood and treasure, and now the consequences of our betrayal, of Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.

  • Posted by: jg23753479 - Jun. 13, 2014 8:18 AM ET USA

    And this is what would happen in short order to Israel were the notions popular among certain Western prelates to prevail. Just as Bush and Obama misunderstood and continue to misunderstand totally the Iraqi situation, so these prelates put in danger the state of Israel and the lives of all Jews and Christians in the area with their blindly irenic proposals. Their demands are not only foolish and unrealistic, they are fraught with danger for all who do not profess Mohammedanism.