
Yazidi Used as Sex Slave for Islamic State Speaks to UN
Yazidi survivor Nadia Murad Basee Taha described to the United Nations Security Council the horrific ordeal she endured while the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) used her as a sex slave.

Yazidi survivor Nadia Murad Basee Taha described to the United Nations Security Council the horrific ordeal she endured while the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) used her as a sex slave.

For the first time in months Islamic State militants mounted a major attack in northern Iraq late Wednesday, but its forces were soundly repelled by Kurdish Peshmerga forces aided by U.S. and coalition air strikes.

Local Church officials have opened a new Catholic university in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, which Erbil Archbishop Bashar Warda has called “a way of fighting back against Islamic State.”

The Islamic State has reportedly issued a fatwa ordering the elimination of children with Down syndrome and other congenital disabilities, reminiscent of Hitler’s infamous “Aktion T4” program, which administered forced “euthanasia” on an estimated 300,000 disabled persons.

There are rumors the spiritual and political leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the so-called “caliph,” was seriously injured in an October airstrike conducted by Iraqi forces.

Mar Mattai, also known as Saint Matthew monastery, sits only 12 miles from Mosul, Iraq, but it provides shelter for numerous Christians who fled persecution from the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).

The Turkish government has clarified that it will not move the 150 soldiers deployed to northern Iraq from their position near Mosul, despite protests from the Iraqi government, though it will not double that amount as previously planned.

Turkey claimed it would not remove troops already in Iraq, but agreed not to send more as it continued to work with the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).

While the world waits to see if the tension between Turkey and Russia escalates, Turkey has also become embroiled in a dispute with the Iraqi government that has the potential to become more serious: Turkish troops have been crossing the border into Iraq without permission.

The government of Turkey announced Friday that it has deployed 150 soldiers and 20 tanks to Mosul, Iraq, to participate with the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).

Iraqi military forces are reportedly moving into position for the long-anticipated offensive to retake the captive city of Ramadi from ISIS, which has responded by threatening to kill Ramadi residents if they raise white flags.

The church of Saint George in Baghdad, which was closed down in 2007 after being firebombed by Islamic militants, was finally reopened Monday, but local clergy worry that there are no longer any Assyrian Christians left to worship there.

The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) allegedly destroyed Mosul University’s Faculty of Agriculture buildings. They captured the city in June 2014.

A young Iraqi priest living in Jordan has helped more than 2,000 people escape from the clutches of the Islamic State in Iraq by personally sponsoring their entry into Jordan, securing them food and lodging and facilitating their international recognition as refugees.

Iraqi and Kurdish officials have met to plan the long-delayed Battle of Mosul, an effort to push ISIS out of the city they have been using as their base of operations in Iraq.

The Islamic State has confirmed the Pentagon’s August claim that it killed ISIS’ deputy commander, Abu Mutaz al-Qurashi. “America is rejoicing over the killing of Abu Mutaz al-Qurashi and considers this a great victory,” a spokesman for the Islamic State named Abu Mohamed al-Adnani declared, in an audio recording posted to Islamist websites, as reported by AFP.

A cholera outbreak that had affected a reported 100 Iraqis in late September has now spread to over 1,400 patients, Iraq’s health ministry warned this week. The disease, carried through unclean water, has spread throughout the country, though the Iraqi government can only monitor cases in regions not controlled by the Islamic State.

Iraq’s central government is cutting off wage and pension payments to Mosul, and other parts of northern Iraq controlled by the Islamic State. The move is expected to be one more crushing blow for people caught in the living nightmare of the Islamic State.

Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, has been largely cut off from the rest of the world since the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) captured it in June 2014. But there are some citizens who have managed to reveal the terrible conditions they suffer under the vicious radical Islamic group.

While Russia has diverted much of the world’s attention to the war in Syria, the Islamic State’s online propagandists are working to divert attention away from the dangers of living under ISIS with the announcement of two new theme parks opening in Iraq and Syria.

Patriarch Louis Sako, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Baghdad, is the latest Christian leader to ask Christians in the Middle East not to abandon their homelands despite threats from radical Islamic groups. He also slammed the countries who give preferential treatment to Christian refugees.

Kurdish official Saeed Mamouzini told IraqiNews.com that the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) kidnapped 127 children in Mosul, Iraq, to train them as jihadists.

Small Christian militias continue to fight for Iraq–men determined to stop the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) from destroying their homeland and heritage. The Assyrian fighters are one of many groups profiled in the past year who are willing to stand up to the radical Islamic group.

Press TV reported that an Iraqi woman killed a top Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) commander in Mosul after he forced her into sex slavery.

A Kurdish official claimed that 25 Kurdish prisoners escaped from an Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS) prison in Mosul.