Islamic State takes over Iraq's largest Christian town

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <h1 itemprop="headline name" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: small;">Iraq's largest Christian town has been overrun over by militants from Islamic State - formerly Isis - according to fleeing residents and Christian clerics, as jihadists lauch overnight raids across the north</span></h1> <div class="artIntro" style="border-top-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 2px; padding-top: 3px;"> <div class="gutterUnder" style="margin-bottom: 15px;"> <div class="InSkinContainer inSkinContainerId-11018558" id="InSkinContainer_myInSkin1" style="background-image: url(http://inskin.vo.llnwd.net/o21/InSkinFiles/jpgs/telegraph/article_player.jpg); height: auto; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 620px;"> <div class="InSkinContentContainer inSkinContentContainer-11018558" id="InSkinContentContainer_myInSkin1" style="height: 315px; margin: 60px 30px 40px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 560px; z-index: 2;"> <div class="videoPlayer" id="playerwrapper" style="height: 315px; width: 560px;"> <div class="innerWrapper" style="height: 315px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 560px; z-index: 10000;"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <br /> <div class="firstPar"> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Islamic State militants have overrun Qaraqosh, Iraq's largest Christian town, after pushing back Kurdish troops across a large area of the north of the country, fleeing residents and Christian clerics have said.</span></div> </div> <div class="secondPar"> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Jihadists moved in overnight to claim several Christian towns, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee, having pushed back Kurdish peshmerga troops, who are stretched thin across several fronts in Iraq.</span></div> </div> <div class="thirdPar"> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"I now know that the towns of Qaraqosh, Tal Kayf, Bartella and Karamlesh have been emptied of their original population and are now under the control of the militants," Joseph Thomas, the Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah, told AFP.</span></div> </div> <div class="fourthPar"> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"It's a catastrophe, a tragic situation. We call on the UN Security Council to immediately intervene. Tens of thousands of terrified people are being displaced as we speak, it cannot be described," the archbishop said.</span></div> </div> <div class="fifthPar"> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alttext="Smoke rises during clashes between Kurdish "peshmerga" troops and militants of the Islamic State, formerly known as ISIL, on the outskirts of Sinjar, west of Mosul, August 5, 2014" caption="Smoke rises during clashes between Kurdish &quot;peshmerga&quot; troops and militants of the Islamic State on the outskirts of Sinjar, west of Mosul" copyright="Reuters" declared-caption="" height="287" name="Iraq-Islamic-State" photographer="" refid="2998607" src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02998/Iraq-Islamic-State_2998607c.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: inline; overflow: hidden;" version="c" width="460" />_{Smoke rises during clashes between Kurdish "peshmerga" troops and militants of the Islamic State on the outskirts of Sinjar, west of Mosul}</span></div> </div> <div class="related-links-float-design related_links_inline" id="tmg-related-links" style="border-bottom-width: 0px !important; 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They faced no resistance and rolled in just after midnight," said Boutros Sargon, a resident who fled the town and was reached by phone in Arbil.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"I heard some gunshots last night and when I looked outside, I saw a military convoy from the Islamic State. They were shouting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greatest)," he said.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"> <img align="left" alttext="Thousands of Iraqis flee from the town of Sinjar to Erbil and Dohuk" caption="Thousands of Iraqis flee from the town of Sinjar to Erbil and Dohuk" copyright="Anadolu/Getty" declared-caption="" height="287" name="Iraq refugees" photographer="" refid="2999024" src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02999/Iraq_refugees_2999024c.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: inline; overflow: hidden; padding-right: 10px;" version="c" width="460" /><sub style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: small;">Thousands of Iraqis flee from the town of Sinjar to Erbil and Dohuk</span></sub></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As many as 40,000 people from Iraq's religious minority groups are stranded on Mount Sinjar in a bid to make it to the autonomous Kurdistan region.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Most of the refugees, who fled their home city of Sinjar when it was seized by Islamic State at the weekend, are members of the Yazidi community. The Yazidis are an offshoot from Zoroastrianism and the “Peacock Angel” at the centre of their beliefs is associated by some Sunni Muslims with Satan.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This makes them especially vulnerable to the sectarian attacks practised by Islamic State, which refers to them as “devil-worshippers”.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The foreign minister of Iraqi Kurdistan has said America has a "moral responsibility" to intervene</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We are left alone in the front to fight the terrorists of ISIS,” Falah Mustafa Bakir told CNN.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I believe the United States has a moral responsibility to support us, because this is a fight against terrorism, and we have proven to be pro-democracy, pro-West, and pro-secularism.”</span></div> </div> </div>

Islamic State takes over Iraq's largest Christian town

Iraq's largest Christian town has been overrun over by militants from Islamic State - formerly Isis - according to fleeing residents a...

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