Iraq's Christians are taking up arms against ISIS

(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

published 4 February 2015

When Islamic State rampaged through Iraq last summer, the country's Christian minority says it was left defenseless by fleeing Iraqi army troops and Kurdish peshmerga fighters, and Sunni neighbors largely supported the ISIS capture of Christian villages. Now, reports Nour Malas at The Wall Street Journal, hundreds of Iraqi Christian men are training for their own militia to recapture or defend Christian villages from ISIS.

They face a lot of challenges: No funding and few weapons, lack of support from the Iraqi government, and recruits who have never seen combat or even fired a gun. The Kurdistan Regional Government is lending them training weapons and use of a former U.S. camp outside Kirkuk, and American former military personnel (who say they are "volunteering through a nonprofit organization they declined to name") are helping with the training.

The U.S. may provide financing for the Christian militia, under a provision in the 2015 defense authorization law, but one of the U.S. trainers says right now American officials are keeping their distance. "The Americans want to stay away from this because their view is, if you train the Christians, you're starting some crazy religious war," he told The Journal. "Well, ISIS beat you to it." Read more about the fledgling effort at The Wall Street Journal.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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