Mosul a Christian student killed, community denounces "politicized massacre"
(February 18, 2010) There has been more Christian blood shed in Mosul in northern
Iraq. On Wednesday morning, 17th of February, an armed commando killed
a young university student and wounded a friend who was at the place of the attack.
The targeted attack against the Christian community is just the latest in a long streak
of blood, a short distance from where the double murder of two traders took place
and the kidnapping of a man, on 13th of February. The victim is Zayia Thomas,
a student of the Faculty of Engineering, the University of Mosul. The young man was
gunned down and shot dead in the neighbourhood of al-Tahrir. Ramsen Shamyael of the
faculty of pharmacy, who with his friend was going to university, was also wounded
in the attack. Christian sources in Mosul speak of "atmosphere of panic that reigns
among Christians”, many of whom "have closed their shops and do not leave their houses
any more". People are barricaded behind the walls of their homes, fearing a repetition
of such attacks. "Before the elections they want to empty the city of Christians,"
says a report from Mosul. The community, which feels increasingly alone and abandoned,
denounces the silence of the central and local government, in Baghdad. Christian politician
of Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan says that the attacks in Baghdad in the recent past are
related to the project to pen the Christian community into one single area.