BACKGROUND: Christians and Iraq's other minorities

Dec 21, 2010, 2:07 GMT

Baghdad - All Iraqis have come under attack in the sectarian violence that followed the US-led invasion in 2003. No group could feel safe, especially during the worst years, in 2006 and 2007.

But vulnerable minorities, scattered across the country, have been particularly hard hit, as they had little protection of their own to rely on. Larger sects formed militias that sometimes attacked other groups, but also had defence forces to protect their own neighbourhoods.

Christians, Yezidis and Shebeks remain the most targeted of Iraq's small religious groups, once a source of pride for many in the country who enjoyed diversity.

Christians were estimated to have numbered well over 1 million before 2003 but rights groups say the figure has since halved, as members of the community fled Iraq in droves.

In 2006, Christians were increasingly targeted as sectarian attacks peaked, following smaller scale violence in the first years after the fall of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

The ancient area of Mosul in northern Iraq has been home to churches nearly since the advent of the faith, some 2,000 years ago. In 2008, a second wave of violence against Christians hit Mosul and families escaped the city.

The Barnabas Fund, a religious charity, says Christians in Mosul 'are living behind locked doors ... The universities are almost empty of Christian students, as are the schools.'

Christian families have fled Baghdad, Mosul and Basra - all of Iraq's main cities - and have sought refuge in the Kurdistan region in the north, Amnesty International said.

Last year armed groups carried out two fatal bomb attacks on churches in Mosul in December, in the days leading up to Christmas. Some 65 attacks on Christian churches in Iraq were recorded by monitor groups between 2004 and the end of 2009.

Observers say the most significant incident for Christian sects since 2008 was the church attack in the capital in October of this year.

More than 60 people, mostly worshippers, were killed inside Our Lady of Salvation, an Assyrian Catholic church in Baghdad, where Islamist militants held some 100 people hostage after Sunday services. Among the dead were two priests.

The al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq later said that Christians everywhere were 'legitimate targets.' Threats and attacks have since been on the rise.

Yezidis and Shabaks, even smaller minorities, have also faced attacks by extremists.

The Yezidis are generally found in Kurdish areas of the Middle East - though in recent years they have fled to Europe, especially Germany. The religion's language is Kurdish and the faith has mystical elements of Islamic Sufism and also recalls indigenous beliefs.

In 2007, suspected al-Qaeda affiliated militants targeted Yezidis, shooting dead 23 on a bus. Bombings of several villages killed more than 300 Yezidis and wounded over 700.

Radical Islamists view the Yezidis as heretics, and subject members of the minority faith to repression and discrimination.

There is no official census, but it is believed Yezidis number half a million, spread out in Iran, Russia, Turkey and northern Iraq.

The Shabak people - who follow a religion which resembles a mix of several monotheistic faiths - number over 400,000 in Mosul alone, but they too are coming under attack, forcing the community to scatter.

Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group, said earlier this year that minorities have at times come under attack after demanding greater political rights.

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