Source: The Associated Press
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/384966_iraq25.html
The U.N. refugee agency said Friday that it was rushing aid to thousands of Christians who fled a northern Iraqi city, while a prominent Shiite cleric appealed for unity as lawmakers consider a U.S.-Iraq security deal.
Some 13,000 Christians have been chased away by threats and extremist attacks in Mosul this month, said Ron Redmond, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
That number is more than half the community in a city where Christians have lived since the religion's early days.
"Many left with little money and need help," Redmond told reporters in Geneva, where the agency is headquartered.
He recounted the story of a Christian nurse who told his agency threats started months ago with phone calls, letters and messages left on doors.
Another woman said she fled when she heard of a Christian that was murdered.
"We were the hard core that never wanted to leave Iraq, even with the tense environment," the woman, who fled to Syria, was quoted by the agency as saying.
The agency has delivered relief supplies to more than 1,700 Christian families now displaced in the north of the country, Redmond said. Most are living in churches, monasteries and the homes of relatives in nearby Christian villages and towns.