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BAGHDAD—Tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians fled an advance by Sunni jihadists into the country's northern Christian heartland on Thursday, sending families packing into cars or fleeing on foot as the militants pushed their offensive closer to Iraq's Kurdish region.
The group calling itself Islamic State took over two towns after the Kurdish regional forces guarding them, the Peshmerga, withdrew, local officials and residents said. It wasn't clear why the Peshmerga withdrew. Some Kurdish officials cited higher orders from within the group and others said the jihadists' advance became too threatening.
Islamic State fighters entered Tal Keif, some 10 miles north of the city of Mosul in Nineveh province, late Wednesday, the town's mayor said. They took over Qara Qosh, east of Mosul and closer to the border of the semiautonomous Kurdish region, on Thursday morning, a security official said. The advances appear to indicate a strategic push by the Islamic State toward the Kurdish region, so far insulated from the insurgents and a save haven for displaced Iraqis from all over the country.
Two other towns in the area, Bartella and Karmalees, also fell under Islamic State control overnight, said Joseph Thomas, the Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk and Sulaymaniya. Mr. Thomas and local officials said the latest advance has nearly purged northwestern Iraq of its Christian population.
"Those towns are now devoid of their original inhabitants. The displaced people are roaming the roads and riding whatever vehicle they can to get out," Mr. Thomas said. Tal Keif Mayor Bassem Bello said people also fled his town by foot, as cars jammed the road to make the hourlong drive to the province of Dohuk—part of the country's Kurdish region—overnight.
"The Nineveh plain yesterday was emptied of its people," Mr. Bello said by telephone. "There is not a Christian town left standing." Mr. Bello said the majority of Tel Keif's 30,000 residents fled; if anyone was left behind, he warned they were in great danger from the Sunni extremists on a campaign to seize territory and drive out Iraq's religious and ethnic minorities.
An Iraqi retrieves items from a destroyed shop the morning after a string of car bombs tore through busy shopping streets in several neighborhoods in Baghdad, Iraq. Associated Press
Iraqi Christians are thought to make up little more than 5% of the population of some 23 million people. Once one of the more vibrant Christian populations in the Middle East, 10 years of war and the rise of Islamic extremism already induced much of the country's Christian minority to emigrate.
The Islamic State's capture of Qara Qosh puts the group less than 40 miles from the province of Erbil, where the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government is located. The Iraqi media reported that fighters from the group had taken two Kurdish towns even closer to Erbil, Makhmour and Gwar, but those reports couldn't be immediately confirmed.
The Islamic State—a spinoff of al Qaeda that was previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham, or ISIS—pressed forward an offensive in northern Iraq after seizing the city of Mosul on June 10. In recent days, the group has pushed back Peshmerga forces there, taking a string of towns and two small oil fields and moving towards the country's largest dam in Mosul. The group, emboldened in Iraq after seizing parts of northern and eastern Syria, aims to create a pan-country Islamic state.
For residents of the city of Erbil, the flood of people into the Kurdish region and fears of the jihadists' advance over the past few days has stirred widespread panic. People stocked up on essentials at supermarkets and tried to book flights out of the area, but many were already overbooked, residents said. Security tightened as many more road checkpoints were put up. One resident said an appeal for Kurds to volunteer with the Peshmerga boomed out through a mosque speaker on Wednesday.
The Peshmerga's withdrawal from Tal Keif and Qara Qosh mystified local officials. "There was no attack on Tal Keif at first, there was a Peshmerga withdrawal," said Mr. Bello, the town's mayor. "It was very surprising to us." A Peshmerga spokesman didn't immediately return calls for comment.
Boutros Sargon, a resident who said he fled Tal Keif after the Islamic State moved in, said the town "fell into their hands without resistance." He said he heard sounds of gunfire coming from the direction of the town's entrance around midnight, and stepped out to find insurgents riding armored vehicles yelling "Allahu akbar," or "God is Great."
The group calling itself Islamic State took over two towns after the Kurdish regional forces guarding them, the Peshmerga, withdrew, local officials and residents said. It wasn't clear why the Peshmerga withdrew. Some Kurdish officials cited higher orders from within the group and others said the jihadists' advance became too threatening.
Islamic State fighters entered Tal Keif, some 10 miles north of the city of Mosul in Nineveh province, late Wednesday, the town's mayor said. They took over Qara Qosh, east of Mosul and closer to the border of the semiautonomous Kurdish region, on Thursday morning, a security official said. The advances appear to indicate a strategic push by the Islamic State toward the Kurdish region, so far insulated from the insurgents and a save haven for displaced Iraqis from all over the country.
Two other towns in the area, Bartella and Karmalees, also fell under Islamic State control overnight, said Joseph Thomas, the Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk and Sulaymaniya. Mr. Thomas and local officials said the latest advance has nearly purged northwestern Iraq of its Christian population.
"Those towns are now devoid of their original inhabitants. The displaced people are roaming the roads and riding whatever vehicle they can to get out," Mr. Thomas said. Tal Keif Mayor Bassem Bello said people also fled his town by foot, as cars jammed the road to make the hourlong drive to the province of Dohuk—part of the country's Kurdish region—overnight.
"The Nineveh plain yesterday was emptied of its people," Mr. Bello said by telephone. "There is not a Christian town left standing." Mr. Bello said the majority of Tel Keif's 30,000 residents fled; if anyone was left behind, he warned they were in great danger from the Sunni extremists on a campaign to seize territory and drive out Iraq's religious and ethnic minorities.
An Iraqi retrieves items from a destroyed shop the morning after a string of car bombs tore through busy shopping streets in several neighborhoods in Baghdad, Iraq. Associated Press
Iraqi Christians are thought to make up little more than 5% of the population of some 23 million people. Once one of the more vibrant Christian populations in the Middle East, 10 years of war and the rise of Islamic extremism already induced much of the country's Christian minority to emigrate.
The Islamic State's capture of Qara Qosh puts the group less than 40 miles from the province of Erbil, where the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government is located. The Iraqi media reported that fighters from the group had taken two Kurdish towns even closer to Erbil, Makhmour and Gwar, but those reports couldn't be immediately confirmed.
The Islamic State—a spinoff of al Qaeda that was previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham, or ISIS—pressed forward an offensive in northern Iraq after seizing the city of Mosul on June 10. In recent days, the group has pushed back Peshmerga forces there, taking a string of towns and two small oil fields and moving towards the country's largest dam in Mosul. The group, emboldened in Iraq after seizing parts of northern and eastern Syria, aims to create a pan-country Islamic state.
For residents of the city of Erbil, the flood of people into the Kurdish region and fears of the jihadists' advance over the past few days has stirred widespread panic. People stocked up on essentials at supermarkets and tried to book flights out of the area, but many were already overbooked, residents said. Security tightened as many more road checkpoints were put up. One resident said an appeal for Kurds to volunteer with the Peshmerga boomed out through a mosque speaker on Wednesday.
The Peshmerga's withdrawal from Tal Keif and Qara Qosh mystified local officials. "There was no attack on Tal Keif at first, there was a Peshmerga withdrawal," said Mr. Bello, the town's mayor. "It was very surprising to us." A Peshmerga spokesman didn't immediately return calls for comment.
Boutros Sargon, a resident who said he fled Tal Keif after the Islamic State moved in, said the town "fell into their hands without resistance." He said he heard sounds of gunfire coming from the direction of the town's entrance around midnight, and stepped out to find insurgents riding armored vehicles yelling "Allahu akbar," or "God is Great."
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