» 03/23/2012 10:04 IRAQ Mosul: more Christian blood, 45 year old photographer killed by Joseph Mahmood Salman Dawoud Salman was killed with nine shots. He had been kidnapped four days earlier, perhaps for money, the corpse found in the neighborhood southwest of the city. AsiaNews sources: Mosul has become a stronghold of Sunni Islam, linked to Saudi Arabia. The goal is to create an Islamic state.
Mosul (AsiaNews) - The Christian community in Iraqis once more the target of Islamic extremism: Yesterday morning in Mosul in the north, security forces found the corpse of a man riddled with bullets. The discovery occurred in the Yarmouk district, in the south-west of the city, the body carried nine bullet wounds, fired at close range. The victim is Salman Dawoud Salman, 45, a freelance photographer, and had been kidnapped four days earlier, probably for ransom.
AsiaNews sources in Mosul city explain that it is "a stronghold of Sunni Wahabi fundamentalism, which has close ties with Saudi Arabia." The goal, adds an expert on Iraqi politics, is "to form a Shariah state ", with the Koran and the sunna as references to legislation and "Islam as the only state religion". "And the faithful of other religions - he adds - will have no other choice; either convert or flee the country or pay the tax imposed on non-Muslims."
A church figure in the governorate of Mosul confirms that "many Christian families have left Mosul several years ago." "They have lost faith in everything - he adds - and the government is incapable of doing anything to protect them. The administration's promises are lies and a question emerges: what does the future hold for non-Muslims in those countries where the logic of violence dominates ".
For some time the Christian community in northern Iraq has been a victim of kidnapping for extortion and caught up in a war between Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds to gain power and control over huge oil fields contained in the subsoil. In a decade, estimates speak of a minority "more than halved" following the "biblical" exodus caused by the serial murders.
From 2003 to December 2011, the date of complete withdrawal of U.S. troops, 4,550 U.S. soldiers have died and 300 allies. However, the real carnage regards the Iraqi civilian population, which has around 100 thousand casualties since the war began. On 20 March, on the ninth anniversary of the U.S. invasion, a series of attacks - at least 20 explosions, which also targeted a Syrian Orthodox church in Baghdad over 40 people were killed and dozens injured.
