In recent days, Christians have fled Mosul in Iraq as ISIS militants have taken over the country’s second largest city. In an article from World Watch Monitor (“Why Christians are under pressure to exit Iraq,” 13 June 2014), it is reported that Mosul had a population of 35,000 Christians before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This had since declined to 3,000 Christians, with most now having fled their homes after the June 2014 attacks on the city.

It is estimated that there were 1.2 million Christians in Iraq in the early 1990’s. Before the recent ISIS attacks, about 300,000 Christians remained in the country.  The map below highlights these statistics.

For prayer information, see Operation World’s Iraq page.