Image 1 of 11: A view of the Assyrian Christian village of Baqofah, Iraq from atop Dwekh Nawsha’s base. Dwekh Nawsha is an Assyrian paramilitary group allied with the peshmerga.
ishtartv.com - albawaba.com
June
23rd, 2016
nce
one of the many Christian villages that dot Iraq’s northern Nineveh province, today
the tiny town of Baqofah is mostly deserted. Scant electricity flickers in
abandoned homes and debris litters the streets. The town’s Assyrian residents,
adherents of Chaldean Catholic church, are long gone.
Most
of Nineveh province’s Christians fled for their lives when Daesh (ISIS)
fighters seized Mosul and surrounding villages in June 2014. Peshmerga
(military of Iraqi Kurdistan) forces retook Baqofah and some other Christian
towns soon afterwards, but many former residents remain in displaced persons
camps in Erbil and elsewhere, afraid to return home.
Families
continue
to leave their homes by the hundreds in the northern Nineveh province as
fighting rages between Daesh and a coalition of pro-Iraqi forces in the
struggle to retake Mosul from the extremists. Recent small victories in the
city’s outskirts seem to bode well for the slow-moving
offensive, but Mosul remains the grand - and elusive - prize in Iraq’s fight
against Daesh.
Still,
there is hope. Last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced
the “liberation” of Fallujah, just 50 kilometers west of the capital
Baghdad, after two years of Daesh control. He promised Mosul would be
next.
Meanwhile,
signs of the Mosul offensive are visible in Christian villages like Baqofah,
where the only residents are peshmerga and allied forces using the town as a
military base.
Al
Bawaba offers you a look inside Baqofah-a glimpse of what Assyrians will return
to once Nineveh and greater Mosul are free of Daesh.
(Photos
by Adam Lucente, words by Madeline Edwards)
Image 2 of 11: A street in Baqofah, Iraq. The village’s residents fled in mid-2014 when Daesh forces overtook Mosul and surrounding villages.
Image 3 of 11: A water pump in Baqofah, Iraq near the village's gates.
Image 4 of 11: An abandoned house in Baqofah, Iraq. Many of the Nineveh province’s Christians remain in other cities in Iraqi Kurdistan like Erbil and Dohuk, until they are able to safely return home to their villages.
Image 5 of 11: A broken down car in Baqofah, Iraq.
Image 6 of 11: A Chaldean cemetery in Baqofah, Iraq. Many of Baqofah's residents were adherents of the Chaldean Catholic church.
Image 7 of 11: Dwekh Nawsha soldiers in Baqofah, Iraq. Today, the only people who remain in Baqofah are peshmerga and Dwekh Nawsha soldiers, including a handful of western volunteers. They hope to retake Mosul and its outskirts from Daesh.
Image 8 of 11: Fighters from the Nineveh Plains Force (NPF), another Assyrian paramilitary group, in neighboring Tel Eskof, Iraq.
Image 9 of 11: An NPF soldier in Tel Eskof, Iraq.
Image 10 of 11: A store in the internally displaced persons Ankawa Camp 2 in Erbil, Iraq. Many Christians from who fled Daesh in June 2014 remain in such camps as they await the region's liberation.
Image 11 of 11: View of an Assyrian school in Baqofah, Iraq looking towards Daesh-controlled Batnaya.
|
