ICC Note: The Christian security unit known as the Nineveh Protection Unit still stands guard at the gates of Qaraqosh, Iraq. Unfortunately, Kurdish militias are doing their best to block continues aid to the Christian militia. The situation in Iraq is complicated, as many opposing forces have joined to fight ISIS, but now we may be seeing the beginning of a more confrontational relationship between the allies. Kurds and Christians have claims to the Nineveh plains setting them against each other in the work of rebuilding and repopulating the region after ISIS is defeated.

01/03/2017 Iraq (AINA): The Christian town of Qaraqosh, Iraq, located on the Nineveh Plain, is in ruins. It is far worse than its appearance, which is bad enough. Other than a handful of volunteers to clean up the streets, and the 300 or so members of the Nineveh Protection Unit, or NPU, the town is deserted.

The Christian town has enemies other than the ruthless Islamic State, or ISIS, which left it in ruins. Currently the Kurdish militia, the Peshmerga, is blocking aid to the NPU that guards the town, because the NPU is the Assyrian Christian militia. It is the only armed Christian group in Iraq.

The Kurds and some Shia have territorial claims on the Nineveh Plain. While for appearance and funding from Washington, the Kurdish support Christian interests for now, the historical relationship between the two groups includes participation in the slaughter of Christians by the tens of thousands. There is no room for a Christian enclave, particularly one that is armed, in the future of an independent state of Kurdistan, which the Kurds are foolish enough to believe that Washington will support.

On a recent day, I personally was escorting three trucks of supplies to the NPU, one two-ton truck with food and two pickups filled with bottled water, when the Peshmerga stopped us at their main checkpoint between Erbil and Qaraqosh. I had authorized the aid, which amounted to a 20-day supply of food for the 300-man NPU garrison guarding Qaraqosh.

For more than two hours, solutions of varying kinds were explored. Taking certain measures that cannot be discussed here, we were finally able to deliver the aid to Qaraqosh. When we arrived at the NPU warehouse in Qaraqosh, the supplies for the day consisted of two bags of onions — that was all. There, we unloaded 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of rice and other supplies.

…

[Full Story]