10 years ago Qaraqosh, in Iraq, fell into the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS)

The small town of Qaraqosh in northern Iraq, with a population of 60,000, 99% of whom are Catholic, woke up ten years ago on the morning of Wednesday, August 6, 2014 to the sound of mortar shells They fell indiscriminately on the houses. Three people died: Inaam Ishua Boulis, 32, David Adeeb Elias Shmeis, 5, and Milad Mazen Elias Shmeis, 9.

The fall of Mosul, the center of Nineveh Governorate and Iraq’s second-largest city, occurred about two months earlier, on June 10, 2014, after the terrorist organization Islamic State (ISIS) devastated the city. By August 6, ISIS would reach Qaraqosh, about 33 kilometers southeast of Mosul.

With a deadline of July 19, 2014, Christians had to choose between converting to Islam or the covenant of purpose, a tax paid by non-Christians in exchange for a small amount of protection under Sharia law, Islamic law. Otherwise they were forced to leave the city, and if they refused they could be killed.

As a result, almost all of the Christians fled the city and began traveling for safety across the Nineveh Plain, creating a wave of fear in the towns and cities of the region as they fled.

Garagosh bajo ataque

When the bombing began, 5-year-old David Shmeis died instantly. According to his mother, Duha Sabah Abdullah, his body parts were so scattered that only fragments of his head and legs were found.

His cousin Milad, 9, was also among the victims who died in the explosion.

The shelling did not stop that day, as eyewitness Nimrod Qasha explained, adding that after the funeral and burial ceremonies of the dead, the displacement began.

Qasha and many others believed that, similar to the events of June 26, when the inhabitants fled and returned a few days later, the city’s Christians would evacuate and return after a short time.

Abdullah confirmed that the sounds of shelling did not stop during the burial ceremonies. Interrupted by a midnight warning call from a friend of her husband’s in Mosul, Abdullah was warned that ISIS was close to assaulting Qaraqosh. Abdullah and her family left after hanging up the phone. Those who fled Mosul had already shared news of the atrocities committed by ISIS against the Yazidis when they invaded Sinjar and the region on August 3.

The United States and other countries eventually declared that what happened to the Yazidis was a genocide.

The Fall of Qaraqosh

“On the morning of August 7, there was no longer any doubt that Qaraqosh, Karamlis and Bartella had fallen into the hands of ISIS,” Qasha confirmed, adding that the sound of bullets accompanying the advance of the terrorist elements was deafening.

In the early hours of the morning came news of the infiltration of ISIS fighters into the area and the withdrawal of military units assigned to protect it, according to Qasha. The main street leading to Erbil was packed with displaced people. There were no vehicles available to transport the town’s 60,000 residents.

Only a few sick and elderly people remained in Qaraqosh because they could not leave.

Abdullah could not describe his feelings when he left his city, leaving his son’s grave just after burying him: “My eyes did not stop shedding tears on the road to Erbil, and dark thoughts came to me, and I was afraid that they would exhume or desecrate the grave,” he said.

Qasha explained that the roads leading to Erbil and Dohuk, larger cities with Christian strongholds within the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, were packed with crowds. Tens of thousands of Christians fleeing villages and towns waited for hours to cross checkpoints in the Kurdistan Region to seek safety in Erbil.

Abdullah recounted the harsh conditions they experienced during the period of displacement. During that time, they resided in a school-turned-IDP camp in Erbil, which eventually absorbed this task into the Nineveh Plain. However, her family shared a classroom with six other families, which reduced space and exacerbated the psychological difficulty of displacement.

Eventually, the family sought refuge in France but demanded to return to their homeland after the liberation of Qaraqosh so that Abdullah could be sure that his murdered son’s grave had been respected.

A moment of redemption for Qaraqosh

On March 7, 2021, during his apostolic visit to Iraq, Pope Francis prayed the Angelus with Christians at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Qaraqosh.

“Our meeting shows that terrorism and death never have the last word. The last word belongs to God and his Son, conqueror of sin and death,” Pope Francis said then.

“Even in the face of the devastation caused by terrorism and war we can see, with the eyes of faith, the triumph of life over death,” he added.

Seven years after his son’s death, Abdullah presented his testimony to the Pope during his historic visit to the church. She told the story of the murder of her son, her cousin, and her young neighbor who was preparing for marriage, in light of the faith and hope that had shaped her understanding of their deaths in the years since the attack and the fall of the city.

“As Christians we firmly believe that we are always projects of martyrdom,” Abdullah told the Pope, and highlighted that “the martyrdom of these three angels was a clear sign for us, and if it were not for them, the people would have stayed in Qaraqosh and it would definitely have fallen into the hands of ISIS.

“Their lives saved the entire city,” he stressed, concluding on a note of hope. “Our strength inevitably comes from our belief in the resurrection, from our holding on to hope, from our belief that our children are in heaven in the lap of the Lord Jesus,” she said.

Pope Francis shared that Doha Sabah Abdallah’s words about forgiveness moved him deeply.

“The road to a full recovery could still be long but I ask you, please, not to be discouraged. It takes the ability to forgive and, at the same time, the courage to fight,” the Holy Father said on that occasion.

“You are not alone! The entire Church is close to you, with prayer and concrete charity,” he assured.

This article was originally published on August 6, 2023 in CNA. It has been translated, adapted and updated by the ACI Prensa team for republication.