Iraq: Christian families flee Mosul in fear of attacks

Mosul, 10 Oct. (AKI) - At least 75 Christian families have fled the northern Iraqi city of Mosul fearing a wave of attacks that have recently targeted members of the religious minority.

"Twenty-five Christian families left their houses in Mosul on Wednesday and were then followed by 50 families on Thursday," reported the news agency Voices of Iraq, quoting a security source.

"The official records indicated five Christian individuals were killed in the past few days," Brig. Khalid Abdelsattar, spokesman for Ninewa Operations Command told VOI.

"Terrorism has taken aim at all Iraqis and Christians, who like all people, are targeted by terrorism and armed groups," the spokesman stressed.

On Tuesday a Christian man and his father were both shot dead, while in another incident unknown gunmen forced their way into a pharmacy in an eastern neighbourhood of Mosul and killed a Christian who worked there.

Mosul is the capital of the Nineveh Governorate, located some 405 kilometres to the north of the capital, Baghdad.

The city is home to the second-largest community of Christians in Iraq after Baghdad. Iraq's Christian minority is persecuted by Al-Qaeda in Iraq and by Shia militias.

Iraq is home to the Chaldean Catholic Church, one of the oldest Christian churches in the world, but hundreds of thousands of Christians have been forced to flee Iraq to escape the violence and the economic crisis caused by the war.

There are now around 700,000 Christians in Iraq, compared with over a million before the US invasion in 2003, according to censuses carried out by the country's dioceses.