Beleaguered

Beleaguered Christian army pleads for U.S. military aid to defend land against ISIS by Hazel Tores

Courtesy: U.S. Army Lt. Col. Sargis Sangari (Ret.)

Christian Assyrian fighters pose for a souvenir photo inside their headquarters in Iraq's Assyrian Nineveh plains.

 

A small beleaguered group of battle-tested Christian fighters in Iraq is pleading for U.S. military assistance as it has run out of weapons and ammunition to fight the advancing horde of Islamic State (ISIS) barbarians out to seize its enclave in the Ninevah Plains.

Speaking to WND and Radio America, Assyrian Military Forces commander Emanuel Khoshaba said the Assyrian Christians who live in the area face genocide from ISIS militants if they don't get military supplies soon.

"We can face IS without any fear. We can fight them if we have the support," Khoshaba said. However, right now they could not fight effectively because of lack of weapons.

To those who doubt their capability, Khoshaba assured that he and his men will not be like the Iraqi forces who quickly retreated upon seeing ISIS militants from a distance, giving up their U.S.-supplied weapons and equipment.

"This is the difference," he said. "We fight for our land. We are fighting for our historical land. We are fighting for our village, for our cities, for our future."

He said the Iraqi troops retreated in a hurry because they had no attachment to the land they were defending. "[The soldiers] didn't think they belonged to that area or that territory," Khoshaba said. "The Islamic State came to him, and he ran away."

He said the Christian people of the Ninevah Plains decided to form an army only last August as the ISIS continued its advance after it conquered Mosul.

"I had been in Irbil, and I saw what was happening to my people. We decided to pick up arms and go fight for children, for women, for old men, for our life, for our future," Khoshaba said.

He said his group started with just 12 fighters. To provide them weapons, Assyrian Christian women sold their wedding rings and other objects made of gold so that they could purchase AK-14s and other munitions for their fledgling army.

Despite insufficient weapons, he said his men fought bravely against the much bigger and better armed ISIS forces, slowing their along the Ninevah Plains.

However, he admitted that without support from the U.S. and other coalition forces, they have no chance to defeat the ISIS militants who are not only well armed but also skilled in battle.

"They are fighting with strategy," he said. "Most of them are ex-Saddam officers, intelligence and Republican Guard. So they have a strategy. They know how to fight."

Retired Lt. Col. Sargis Sangari, an American advisor to the Assyrian Christian Army, said the latter shares the strategic goals and aspirations of the United States and as such is deserving of U.S. military assistance, according to Breitbart News.

Sangari said the Christian army is about to go down. "All we're saying is we're done. We don't have equipment. We don't have the weapons. We don't have the training," said Sangari, an Assyrian American who was deployed to Iraq as part of his 20-year career in the U.S. Army.

"As much as you're giving money to all these individuals who are killing each other, why don't you try to give it to the Assyrians?" he said, addressing the Obama administration. "Anybody who fights just for money will be a failure, but when you give money to individuals who are fighting for their homeland, they'll be successful."

He said the Assyrian Army is among the most effective groups fighting ISIS. Proof of its effectiveness is that it was able to protect Christian territories in Iraq's Nineveh province and resist ISIS's command for Christians to pay a submissive tax known as the jizya, convert to Islam, or die by the sword, Sangari said.