Islamic State Destroys Assyrian Churches

Islamic State Destroys Assyrian Churches, Hostages Still Being Held
By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST and the ASSIST News Service
MOSUL, IRAQ (ANS – March 17, 2015) – The self-styled terror group, Islamic State, also known as ISIS, has been on a rampage of destroying Assyrian churches in Northern Iraq.
According to the Assyrian International News Agency (www.aina.org), Islamic State members has destroyed the St. George Catholic Monastery in Mosul, and has proudly posted pictures on its Twitter account of its members using sledgehammers to smash crosses and icons, and removing the cross from the dome and replacing it with the black ISIS flag.
Islamic State captured Mosul on June 10, 2014 and immediately destroyed or occupied all 45 Assyrian churches and other religious institutions in the city.
The group also destroyed Assyrian archaeological sites, including the walls of Nineveh and the cities of Nimrud and Khorsabad.
According to AINA, in Syria Islamic Sate attacked 35 Assyrian villages in the Hasaka region, capturing at least 300 Assyrians and destroying at least 5 churches, including the church in Tel Hurmiz, one of the oldest churches in Syria, the Mar Bisho church in Tel Shamiran, the church in Qabr Shamiy and the church in Tel Baloua.
After two days of heavy clashes Assyrian and Kurdish forces regained the Assyrian villages of Tel Mighas and Tel Misas.
The Church of St. Sawa in Tel-Jadiya was destroyed by Islamic State fighters, who burned Bibles in the church and broke its cross.
“This church has been liberated and is now under the control of Assyrian and Kurdish fighters,” said the news service.
Hostages still being held
Despite reports to the contrary that all of the 52 Assyrian families, nearly 300 people, who were captured in
the initial attacks on February 23, AINA says that “no progress has been made in the negotiations for their release in the last three days.”
On March 10, 2015, AINA said, that according to the Vatican ambassador in Damascus, Mario  Zinari, 52 Assyrian families who were captured by Islamic State and who were supposed to be freed yesterday (March 9, 2015) have not been released because Kurdish forces bombed the caravan containing the families. After the bombing ISIS decided to delay their release. There is no information on whether Islamic State intends to go through with their release.
“It is not clear why Kurdish forces bombed the Assyrian hostages caravan,” said their story.
Nine Assyrian fighters died defending their villages in the initial attacks and there are reports that Islamic State has executed at least 12 Assyrian fighters who were captured, two of them women.
Photo captions: 1) Islamic State members destroying the cross. 2) Islamic State hard at work destorying the inside of a church. 3) Islamic State fighter smashing a cross in a graveyard.
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