ICC Note

After towns like Tel Keyf are liberated of ISIS, Christians are still wary about returning home. Christians face many obstacles when trying to return home including destroyed homes, lack of essential services and threats from militia groups like the Popular Mobilization Forces. Thus there are hundreds of Christians who fled to the Kurdistan region hoping for a change in their situation that will make it safe to return to their homes to begin the rebuilding process.

2017-05-18 Iraq (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi forces liberated the Christian town of Tel Keyf over three months ago, but the area remains largely empty as residents faced with serious obstacles refuse to return home.

Located in the Ninevah Plains, Tel Keyf is only eight kilometers northeast of Mosul. The Islamic State (IS) occupied the town in June 2014 after it emerged in northern Iraq.

After the launch of the military operation to liberate Nineveh Province and Mosul in particular from the extremist group on Oct. 17, 2017, Iraqi forces freed Tel Keyf on Jan. 19, 2017.

“There are many factors that why people are not returning to Tel Keyf,” the Mayor of Tel Keyf Bassam Balo told Kurdistan24. “There are many Hashd al-Shabi forces, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), in the town and each follows orders from different commanders.”

Balo also mentioned that 70 percent of the city was destroyed in clashes between Iraqi forces and IS at the beginning of the offensive.

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