Iraq’s ‘pearl of the south’ Lake Sawa dry amid water crisis

This year, for the first time in its centuries-long history, the lake dried up. A combination of mismanagement by local investors, government neglect and climate change has ground down its azure shores to chunks of salt. Lake Sawa is only the latest casualty in this broad country-wide struggle with water shortages that experts say is induced by climate change, including record low rainfall and back-to-back drought. The stress on water resources is driving up competition for the precious resource among businessmen, farmers and herders, with the poorest Iraqis counting among the worst hit amid the disaster.

Read More
Kurdish fighters defend against Islamic State attack

The Islamic State group unleashed its biggest attack in Syria since the fall of its “caliphate” three years ago. More than 100 militants assaulted the main prison holding suspected extremists, sparking a battle with U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters that continued 24 hours later and left dozens dead on Friday.

Read More
Matthew Gordon
Chaldeans in Iraq to set up Museum with Manuscripts Saved from ISIS

Chaldean bishops in Iraq have decided to set up a Christian museum, collecting old manuscripts and books saved from destruction during the Islamic State occupation. The bishops, under the presidency of Cardinal Louis Raphaël I Sako, the Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon, made that decision during their meeting of October 23 in Erbil, capital of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Read More
Matthew Gordon
Taliban in Kabul cast a shadow over Iraq’s future, says Chaldean priest

The withdrawal of US troops, the fall of Kabul, and the rise to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan “reminded many Iraqis of the tragic fate of Mosul in the summer of 2014,” when the city was seized “by the Islamic State (IS),” said Fr. Paul Thabit Mekko, speaking to AsiaNews. Head of the Christian community in Karamles (Nineveh Plain), Fr. Mekko was appointed last week as coadjutor bishop of Alqosh (Iraqi Kurdistan) at the Chaldean synod.

Read More
Matthew Gordon
At Least 82 Killed in Massive Baghdad Hospital Fire

At least 82 people died in a huge hospital fire April 24 in Iraq’s capital city of Baghdad, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said. Another 110 people were injured in the blaze at Ibn al-Khatib Hospital, according to ministry spokesman Major General Khaled Al-Muhanna. The fire is believed to have started after oxygen tanks exploded, according to two health officials at the hospital.

Read More
Matthew Gordon