Three hospitalised as Islamist attacks Christian festival in Iraq

Three people have been hospitalised and an official investigation launched after a person attacked a Christian festival in northern Iraq.

Thousands of individuals from the Assyrian Christian community were walking through the town of Dohuk to have fun Akitu, a latest yr festival that’s marked with vibrant clothing and flags.

According to GB News, this yr’s event was disrupted by a lone man with an axe, who was shouting “Islamic State, the Islamic State stays”. The man was restrained by other members of the group.

A 17-year-old boy and a 75-year-old woman received skull fractures and a member of the safety services was also hospitalised. Some of those injured are reportedly in a critical condition.

While it’s believed that the attack was the work of a lone individual, fairly than a planned motion by a terrorist group, members of the Christian community have called on the Iraqi government to counter extremist ideology within the country.

Ninab Yousif Toma, a member of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM), said, “We request each governments to review the religious and education curriculums that plant hate in people’s heads and encourage ethnic and spiritual extremism.

“This was obviously an inhumane terrorist attack.”

Toma noted that, while the attacker was a Kurdish Muslim, Christians have generally been capable of have fun Akitu peacefully since no less than the Nineties.

He said, “The Kurds in Duhok serve us water and candy even after they are fasting for Ramadan. This was likely a person, unplanned attack, and it can not scare our people.

“The Middle East is governed by religion, and as minorities, we suffer double because we’re each ethnically and religiously different from the bulk.

“But we have now a cause, and we marched today to indicate that we have now existed here for hundreds of years. This attack is not going to stop our people.”

Christians in the realm are prone to be filing a lawsuit related to the incident.