Iraq’s Christians Take Up Arms to Fight Islamic State

In The Wall Street Journal, Nour Malas writes, “Hundreds of Christian men are picking up rifles for the first time at a former U.S. military facility in the hills of northeast Iraq and training to reclaim their towns from Islamic State militants who stormed the country last year.” The Christian fighters have ties with U.S. lawmakers through a large expatriate community and are hoping for U.S. assistance in the form of training and funds, Malas reports. “The U.S. National Defense Authorization Act, approved in December, names local security forces in Iraq as potential beneficiaries of as much as $1.6 billion to train and equip fighters against Islamic State.”

Read at The Wall Street Journal

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