Iraq Press Roundup

The wave of attacks against the Iraqi Christian population is a matter of concern not only to the public but many politicians as well, the Shiite al-Bayyna newspaper of the Iraqi Hezbollah said Wednesday.

Security lessons in Mosul

Some political parties had moved to interfere with security operations in Mosul, which led to an uptick in violence in the northern city. As a result, terrorists saw an opportunity to attack and forcibly displace Christians and other minority religious groups.

This interference by lawmakers is in part responsible for the attacks, but Iraqi security forces, for their part, became less resolved to clear the area of militants amid political wrangling.

Baghdad has yet to learn that terrorists often target the most vulnerable populations in the less secure areas of the country. Iraqi security forces, therefore, need to refocus their strategic objectives in the country.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the military need to ignore declarations by the political parties opposing security operations in Mosul. There is a public demand for security, and it must be realized separately from the political disputes in Baghdad.

Aside from political disputes between the Kurdistan Regional Government and Baghdad and the Turkish military operations in northern Iraq, the attacks on religious minorities continue due to political disagreements that matter little to the security situation, Sot al-Iraq news service said Wednesday.

Terrorists are launching a religious cleansing campaign against Christians

The northern Iraqi home of the Christian population is one of the most unstable parts of the country. The campaign against the Christians, one of the most peaceful people in the region, is a grave atrocity for Iraq.

Prior to the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, all of the people of Iraq suffered equally under the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein. Socialist laws in the 1970s caused a mass migration of Iraqi Christians, but it had little to do with their religion or ethnicity.

Targeting the Christians today, however, is a social stigma for all the Iraqi people, revealing a serious division in society and a general lack of values. The will of the people, the newspaper said, is the only way to eliminate these sectarian and ethnic problems.

For its part, Shebab al-Iraq said Wednesday the wave of attacks against the Christians was reminiscent of the ethnic conflicts that drove Iraq to the brink of civil war in 2006.

Would targeting Christian families increase sectarian violence?

Thousands of Christian families were forced to flee the northern Ninawa province after militants distributed fliers threatening their lives if they did not leave.

Muslim and Christian leaders had predicted widespread attacks on minority religious groups in the once peaceful region as a result.

Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Khalid Abdul Sattar, commander of security operations in Mosul, told reporters military officials suspected that several Christian families fled without informing the government out of fear that leaving without a veil of secrecy would put them at greater risk.

Some analysts view the attacks on Christians as a politically motivated means to disrupt the situation in the north, while Christians, for their part, see it as an attempt to influence the population of Mosul.

Meanwhile, human rights groups are comparing the plight of the Christians to the aggressions against the Jewish population that forced most of them out of the country due to political persecution.