Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Displaced Iraqi Christians who fled from Islamic State militants pray at school acting as refugee camp in Irbil. (CNS photo/Ahmed Jadallah, Reuters)

Amnesty International has issued a devastating report detailing summary executions, child abductions, sexual assaults, forced religious conversions and “ethnic cleansing on a historic scale” committed by the Islamic State militant group as it swept across northern Iraq from its base of operations in Syria. Amnesty International found that the Islamic State systematically targeted non-Arab and non-Sunni Muslim communities in overrun communities, killing or abducting hundreds, possibly thousands, and forcing more than 830,000 others to flee the areas it has captured since mid-June. Field investigators conclude that ISIS “is systematically and deliberately carrying out a program of ethnic cleansing in the areas under its control.” Ethnic and religious minorities—Assyrian Christians, Turkmen Shiites, Shabak Shiites, Yazidis, Kakai and Sabean Mandaeans—have lived together in the Nineveh Province, much of it now under ISIS control, for centuries, A.I. researchers point out. “Today, only those who were unable to flee when I.S. fighters seized the area remain trapped there, under threat of death if they do not convert to Islam.”

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Jesuit Father Andriy Zelinskyy, coordinator of military chaplains for the Ukrainian Catholic Church, is pictured in a 2018 photo.
When reflecting on the life, death and resurrection of the Lord while living in a state of military invasion and active war, “everything becomes more authentic,” and “God ceases to be just a concept,” says Andriy Zelinskyy, S.J. “He really becomes a source of life and all hope for you and for
PreachMarch 17, 2024
One study showed Catholics donated the least amount of money of all denominations surveyed.
Kevin ClarkeMarch 15, 2024
Bishop Luis Manuel Alí Herrera and Teresa Morris Kettlekamp will lead the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
Gerard O’ConnellMarch 15, 2024
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that exemptions that allow religious organizations to avoid paying Wisconsin’s unemployment tax don’t apply to a Catholic charitable organization.