Military Council member Aram Hanna told Kurdistan 24 TV that he hopes a U.S.-led coalition would protect northeast Syria because Islamic State "sleeper cells still pose a threat."

Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Cardinal Louis Sako is concerned by rising tensions between the United States and Iran, fearful that his country, Iraq, could be caught in the middle of any potential conflict. It has also made a proposed visit by Pope Francis to Iraq next year uncertain, he said.

Little did Rose realize that her dream of soon completing university studies and finding the love of her life on her 21st birthday would turn into an indescribable abyss.

The United Nations has described the Islamic State campaign against the Yazidis since 2014 as "genocide."

Several Mideast-based Christians working on the Syria crisis have joined a growing chorus about U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to pull some 2,000 American troops from Syria.

Christians and other civilians inside Idlib, Syria, are fearful of an impending, all-out offensive by their government and its Russian and Iranian backers on the northwestern province, the last rebel stronghold and presumed endgame in Syria's more than seven-year-old war.

As Europe continues to struggle with migrant and refugee arrivals, Catholics in the French capital are heeding Pope Francis' call to come to their aid by providing practical and spiritual help to the newcomers.

As Syria's war soon enters its eighth year, the conflict is escalating in the country's north, between Turkey and the Kurds, and in the south, between Iran and Israel. 

In his annual "state of the world address" Jan. 8 to diplomats from more than 180 countries, Pope Francis urged countries once again to respect the status quo of Jerusalem. 

"The policies on asylum and deportation in Germany have become stricter in the last year, and so that's why more refugees ask for help in the churches."