Except: “Assyrian Christians in Iraq (who are also known by their church denominations: Chaldean Catholic, Syriac Orthodox, and Syriac Catholic) live under constant threat of extinction. Prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Christians in the country numbered around 1.5 million. That number now has been reduced to 100-200,000.
ISIS did not simply seek to wipe out Christians from the Middle East but also purge any historical evidence that Assyrian and Mesopotamian civilizations even existed. Some of the most egregious examples took place in March 2015, when ISIS bulldozed the 3,000-year-old Assyrian city of Nimrud and destroyed the tombs of the biblical prophets, Jonah and Daniel, in Mosul.”
BRADLEY MARTIN , EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NEAR EAST CENTER FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES