Iraqi Christians fear escalating persecution as US forces withdraw

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The protection of Christians may not be a priority in Iraq

As US forces continue to withdraw from Iraq, many fear a return to sectarian violence once they've gone. Iraqi Christians are particularly fearful of the removal of the main barrier between them and their persecutors.

Their churches are burnt-out husks and heaps of rubble. Their businesses are targeted by extremists. Their leaders are kidnapped and assassinated. The Christian minority in Iraq, once a community left in peace to prosper, continues to be under threat from a campaign of persecution which has forced as many as 500,000 Christians to flee the country.

During the reign of Saddam Hussein, the estimated 1.4 million Christians - many of them Chaldean-Assyrians and Armenians, with small numbers of Roman Catholics - were generally left alone if they didn't oppose the government and they lived in relative peace with the country's Sunnis and Shiites.

Some, such as Tariq Aziz, Saddam's foreign minister and deputy prime minister, rose to the highest levels of power. Read more - Hat Tip: Jihad Watch...