An axe-wielding man injured three people at an annual Christian parade while repeatedly shouting: “Islamic State, the Islamic State remains.” The horrific attack happened at the annual parade by Assyrian Christians in the Iraqi city of Dohuk to mark their new year on Tuesday.
The festivalgoers marched through the northern city while waving Assyrian flags and wearing colourful traditional clothes. However, an attacker ran towards the crowd and struck three people with an axe.
He was soon stopped by security before being pinned to the ground when he shouted the Islamic slogans. It’s reported that a boy, 17-year-old Fardi, and a woman, 75-year-old Yoniyah Khoshaba, suffered skull fractures while a security officer was also wounded.
Fardi’s mother, Athraa Abdullah, said her son had been sending her pictures of the festival throughout the day. However, she was then called by his friends to say he had been attacked.
As reported by the Express and Star, Ms Abdullah, whose family was displaced when Islamic State (IS) militants swept into their area in 2014, said: “We were already attacked and displaced by IS, and today we faced a terrorist attack at a place we came to for shelter.”
Meanwhile, Yoniyah’s daughter, Janet Aprem Odisho, said they had been shipping near the parade when the attack unfolded. She said: “He was running at us with an axe.
“All I remember is that he hit my mother, and I ran away when she fell. He had already attacked a young man who was bleeding in the street, then he tried to attack more people.”
Ninab Yousif Toma, a political bureau member of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM), said after the attack: “We request both governments to review the religious and education curriculums that plant hate in people’s heads and encourage ethnic and religious extremism. This was obviously an inhumane terrorist attack.”
However, he said that the Assyrian community had celebrated their new year, known as Akitu, in Duhok since the 1990s without incidents of violence. He also acknowledged the support of local Kurdish Muslim residents.
He said: “The Kurds in Duhok serve us water and candy even when they are fasting for Ramadan. This was likely an individual, unplanned attack, and it will not scare our people. The Middle East is governed by religion, and as minorities, we suffer double because we are both ethnically and religiously different from the majority.
“But we have a cause, and we marched today to show that we have existed here for thousands of years. This attack will not stop our people.”
