Iraq's Assyrian Christians fear ISIS threat to heritage
Assyrian Christian community leaders tell Al-Monitor that the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has not yet destroyed ancient Assyrian and Christian artifacts in Mosul.
![Sparrows sit on crosses at St. Matthew's monastery on Mount Maqloub, northeast of Mosul in Northern Iraq, some 400 km northwest of Baghdad January 7, 2004. [The Assyrian Orthodox Christmas is celebrated today with reference to the Julian calendar, which has a difference of two weeks to the Gregorian calendar.] - RTXMDTW](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_large/public/almpics/2014/07/RTXMDTW.jpg/RTXMDTW.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=6PoUy9lE "IRAQ")
ALQOSH, Iraq — When militants led by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) — now known as the Islamic State — stormed Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, on June 10, Um Hanna and her extended seven-member family hastily rushed toward the safer town of Alqosh, 50 kilometers (31 miles) to the north.
In Alqosh, the family lives in a two-room house offered to them free of charge by a local resident. As a Christian family, they thought if they stayed in Mosul their fate would be annihilation at the hand of the militants.
“It was a dangerous situation for Christians,” Um Hanna told Al-Monitor, standing among her family members. “No one knows how the situation in Mosul will end for Christians.”
So far, at least, the worst fears of Um Hanna and many others like her have not come true.
