Congress fuels Christian rivalries with bid to arm Iraqi militias
A House effort to arm Iraqi Christian militias risks making an already tense standoff in the Ninevah Plains even worse.
A little-noticed provision to arm Iraqi Christians in the House version of a must-pass defense bill is inadvertently fueling unrest between rival militias on the Ninevah Plains, an Iraqi melting pot.
The nonbinding provision, inserted by Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., a conservative Christian member of the House Armed Services Committee, notes “the important role of the Iraqi Christian militias within the military campaign against [the Islamic State (IS)] in Iraq, and the specific threat to the Christian population.” It calls on the United States to “provide arms, training, and appropriate equipment to vetted elements of the Ninevah Plains Council,” a governing council being proposed by Assyrian factions but with no guarantee of being formed.
Ever since IS swept across Iraq and began its genocidal campaign, forcing thousands of Assyrian Christians to flee the Ninevah Plains in 2014, Washington has routed military support to Iraqi sub-state militias through the central government in Baghdad. While IS has now largely been ousted from the Ninevah Plains, the group still poses a threat to surrounding areas.
Franks told Al-Monitor that he had inserted the language with the expectation that the Department of Defense would use it to bypass Baghdad and provide direct military assistance to favored Christian militias.
