British MPs Call for Investigation of Kurdish Militia in Assyrian Assassinations

GMT 10-14-2009
Assyrian International News Agency

London (AINA) -- A motion in the British parliament was put forth today calling for an investigation of the targeted assassinations of Assyrians in Iraq's Kurdish north (AINA 10-17-2008, 10-17-2008).

The motion, introduced by Edward Leigh and signed by five others, reads as follows:

That this House is deeply concerned by the targeted assassinations of Christians in Mosul, northern Iraq, in September and October 2008, which killed at least 14 Iraqi Christians and displaced over 2,000 Christian families from that city; notes that a Washington Times news report dated 26 October 2008, stated that on 17 October 2008 Iraqi security forces arrested six men in connection with the killings of Christians in Mosul and found that four of them had links to the Kurdish Regional Government militia, not Al Qaeda; further notes that the Kurdish Regional Government and its militia are dominated by the Kurdistan Democratic Party and that on 29 October 2008 Gulf News reported that investigations had been completed, and proved the involvement of Kurdish militias in the displacement and killing of Christians, a claim which was re-stated by Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki during a discussion with Iraqi lawmakers, according to Osama Al Nojaifi, a deputy in the Iraqi parliament; and, in view of such serious and widespread allegations, urges Her Majesty's Government to press the Iraqi government to fully investigate these allegations and publicly to announce all the investigation's conclusions.

Leigh, Edward Farron,
Timothy Brown,
Russell Drew,
David Russell,
Bob Pound, Stephen


15,000 Assyrians, about 2500 families, were driven out of Mosul in October, 2008. Threats, intimidation and murder by unidentified groups instilled fear and panic in the Assyrian community, and caused a massive exodus into the Assyrian villages in the Nineveh Plain. Thirteen Assyrians were killed in a period of four weeks. At least three Assyrian homes were bombed. Notes were left instructing the Assyrians to leave the city immediately or face reprisal (AINA 10-16-2008, 10-17-2008).

The following video report on the Assyrians of Mosul is from Al-Jazeera.
Click here to view the report.