Iraqi Christians patrol village retaken from Islamic State, vow to hold ground
Robert Spencer/Jihadi Watch
Nov 13, 2014
The U.S. has finally cut ties with the FSA. There is still no indication that U.S. officials know how to tell a “moderate” from an “extremist,” however.
“Those who do not own a weapon cannot join and many said that Dwekh Nawsha would have 250 men if only they had the needed firepower.” But Obama is busy arming groups like the Free Syrian Army.
In July 2013, Free Syrian Army fighters entered the Christian village of Oum Sharshouh and began burning down houses and terrorizing the population, forcing 250 Christian families to flee the area. Worthy News reported that just two days later, Free Syrian Army rebels “targeted the residents of al-Duwayr/Douar, a Christian village close to the city of Homs and near Syria’s border with Lebanon….Around 350 armed militants forcefully entered the homes of Christian families who were all rounded-up in the main square of the village and then summarily executed.” And in September 2013, a day after Secretary of State John Kerry praised the Free Syrian Army as “a real moderate opposition,” the FSA took to the Internet to post videos of its attack on the ancient Syrian Christian city of Maaloula, one of the few places where Aramaic, the language of Jesus, is still spoken. This is just the faction Obama is backing. This is America’s shame.
“Iraqi Christian militia patrols village retaken from Islamic State group, vows to hold ground,”
Associated Press, November 13, 2014:
BAKUFA, Iraq – An Iraqi Christian militia’s flag is hoisted high over the village of Bakufa in northern Iraq, less than a month after Islamic State militants were pushed out and the extremists’ black banner taken down.
The predominantly Christian hamlet of 95 houses that had about 500 people, located some 390 kilometers (243 miles) north of Baghdad, was overrun by the Islamic State group during its shocking blitz this summer, along with 22 other villages nearby.
In a counter-offensive, the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters swept in from the north, battling the Islamic State fighters house-to-house. The fighting forced the villagers to flee to Kurdish towns and cities elsewhere in northern Iraq.
Once Bakufa was retaken, the Kurdish fighters helped set up the village militia, made up of about 70 volunteers and known as Dwekh Nawsha, or “self-sacrifice” in Assyrian.
The men of Dwekh Nawsha now patrol and guard Bakufa round-the-clock, in the hope that the village stays free long enough so their families can return.
“We found ourselves helpless,” said Caesar Jacob, a deputy of to the Christian militia’s commander. The 44-year-old electrician said the militiamen worked “side-by-side” with the peshmerga fighters but then gradually took over responsibility for their village.
“We must depend on ourselves to defend our land for now and the future,” Jacob told The Associated Press.
The militia commander, Albert Kisso, 47, said Christian territories in Nineveh province needed their own protection and the forming of the militia was the logical outcome….
The Kurdish peshmerga fighters are proud of what they did for Bakufa.
“We came here … to protect our Christian brothers and their homes,” said Abdul Rahman Kawriny, the local peshmerga brigade commander. “There is constant cooperation and assistance. We are always together.”
The Dwekh Nawsha militiamen spend the days patrolling the narrow village streets in bullet-proof vests, their insignia prominently displayed on their fatigues.
n donations from Christian charities abroad and wealthier members of the Iraqi Assyrian community, the Christian fighters must supply their own weapons.
Those who do not own a weapon cannot join and many said that Dwekh Nawsha would have 250 men if only they had the needed firepower.
