“The objective is to liberate their land
in Nineveh Plain and to take charge of security in these areas
afterward,” said Yaco Jacob, a Christian parliamentarian in the
Kurdistan Parliament, according to Al Arabiya News.Other minorities,
such as the Yazidis and the Shi'ite Shabaks, live in the Nineveh plains
and have suffered at the hands of ISIS, also known as the Islamic State.
According to the Wall Street Journal,
hundreds of Christians, who felt government forces abandoned their
families in fighting last summer, are training at a former U.S. military
base in northeast Iraq.
“I want to defend our own lands, with our
own force,” said Nasser Abdullah, 26 years old, who is helping lead
younger recruits in training, according to the Journal.
Some 450 of the estimated 2,000 recruits are receiving training in Iraq's Kurdistan region, Jacob said, Al Arabiya reported.
ISIS conquered several Christian villages
in the Nineveh plains. Kurdish forces in the region also fled when
attacked. About 30,000 Christians fled the region, while some 150,000
Christians across Iraq have been displaced by the fighting initiated by
ISIS, the Journal reported.
“Those who betrayed us won’t be allowed
to live among us,” said Firas Metr, 27, an electrician and inexperienced
recruit. “We need to protect ourselves, now and in the future.”
According to the Journal, organizers hope
to receive aid from the U.S., as they are likely unable to afford
training all the recruits.
Jacob, the Christian parliamentarian, is a
member of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, which operated paramilitary
groups in the 1980s and fought alongside the Kurds in the insurgency
against Saddam Hussein, according to Al Arabiya News. The group began
rebuilding its armed forces in August, after Christians were driven from
the Nineveh plains.
The volunteer forces consist of Assyrians
– Orthodox Christians who are native to the Nineveh plains – and
Chaldeans, who are Catholics.
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