ICC Note: A Christian militia in Iraq claimed on Saturday to have retaken a Christian village south of Mosul. The Nineveh Plain Protection Units announced via social media that it had liberated the village of Badanah from the Islamic State. This is happy news after over two years of ISIS occupation in the town. The Iraqi army and coalition have their sights set on liberating Mosul in weeks to come.
09/06/2016 Iraq (Christian Post): A Christian militia in Iraq, called the Nineveh Plain Protection Units, has said it has taken back a traditionally Christian village from the Islamic State terror group with the help of the U.S.-led international coalition.
The Assyrian-led militia announced on its Facebook page that it has liberated the village of Badanah in in the southern Mosul countryside.
The militia also said this was their “first operation” supported by airstrikes and weapons from the international coalition, according to Vocativ.com.
The militia has shared pictures and a video showing their fighters with their flags in the village, which had been destroyed by Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh.
Christians and other minorities are among the main targets of ISIS, an offshoot of al-Qaeda and which seeks to establish a caliphate in the Levant region and beyond. It has captured large territories in Iraq and Syria, and also some in Libya.
In May, the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, Jan Kubis, submitted a briefing to the Security Council condemning “in the strongest possible terms the continued killings, kidnapping, rape and torture of Iraqis by ISIL, which may constitute crimes against humanity, war crimes and even genocide.”
…
