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Various ISIS, the radical Islamist group that forced Christians out of Mosul with the threat of death, has taken control of most of the villages of the Nineveh Plain, the northern area where Iraqi Christians have hunkered down in what is appearing increasingly to look like ethnic cleansing. In a statement in which the Vatican referst to "terrible developments," Pope Francis has called for help from the "international community." "His Holiness urgently calls on the international community to protect all those affected or threatened by the violence, and to guarantee all necessary assistance—especially the most urgently needed aid—to the...

Our Lord Jesus Christ: "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh a sign: and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonah the prophet." St. Matthew 12:39 And He repeats: "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign: and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonah the prophet." St. Matthew 16:4 The Tomb of Saint Jonah the Prophet in Nineveh (Mosul) VIDEOOnce an Assyrian Church, converted into a mosque after the Muslim invasions, the tomb of the famous Old Testament Prophet who made the Ninevites do penance and recognize the...

Muslim devils in Iraq, members of ISIS, destroyed the tomb of the prophet Jonah (called Younas in Arabic). Shoebat.com obtained a video of the destruction: Jonah's Tomb According to one Mid East report: On Friday a local Nineveh official, Zuhair al-Chalabi said that there is information that almost certainly confirms that members of the organization of the Islamic state in Iraq and the Levant dug up the grave of the Prophet Younis in the east of Mosul. Al-Chalabi said in an interview for IraqiNews.com, that “The elements of ISIL controlled the mosque of the Prophet Younis in Mosul since they...

Muslims in Nineveh, Iraq, have ordered Christians to keep their churches closed, and told them that if they open their churches, that they will burn them down.According to a native Iraqi pastor, named Majeed, described this destruction of Christian liberty: That they are not allowed to open their churches. And even if they open them they will burn the churches… And also the Christians have been requested — been asked to pay the tax [dhimmi, the tax for non-Muslims under Islamic rule]. …If not, they can leave Nineveh… And if they don’t leave and don’t pay the tax, they should...

Baghdad looks like it's about to go down to Islamic Militants. Some say Baghdad is Babylon? What happens when it falls?

The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham has set out a list of rules for residents of Mosul as it seeks to impose its Islamist rules on Iraq's second city. Referring to the area by its ancient name, Nineveh, the group says it has a clear set of instructions for the remaining occupants of the city and surrounding area. Firstly it tells "anyone who is asking," who its members are and what it is about: "We are soldiers of Islam and we've taken on our responsibility to bring back glory of the Islamic Caliphate." All Muslims in the city have...

The legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon are exactly that: legendary. And they may not have been located in Babylon. The gardens, famous as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, were, according to Stephanie Dalley, an Oxford University Assyriologist, located some 340 miles north of ancient Babylon in Nineveh, on the Tigris River by Mosul in modern Iraq. Dalley, whose book The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon will be published later this summer, writes that earlier sources were translated incorrectly, leading to the confusion. The misinterpretation also explains why years of excavations never yielded any credible...

Ever since the peak of the Hellenic empire, visiting the seven wonders of the ancient world has been the way to pay homage to the early achievements of human civilisation. But there was one catch for those who wanted to see them all. The farthest one from Athens, the famed Hanging Gardens of Babylon, in what is now central Iraq, existed in reports but its exact location had never been definitively proven. Of the other six, the pyramids of Giza remain relatively intact and there are ruins or at least traces of the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the statue...

Supporters of Iraqi Christians demonstrate in St. Peter's Square Vatican City, Feb 28, 2010 / 03:30 pm (CNA).- After the Angelus on Sunday, the Holy Father exhorted the international community to do “everything possible” to give Iraqis a future of “reconciliation and justice." His words against anti-Christian violence in Iraq were well received by Iraqi demonstrators in St. Peter's Square. Pope Benedict XVI related the "profound sadness" he felt upon learning of the killings of Christians in Mosul last week. He added that he has followed the violent events perpetrated against unarmed victims with "great preoccupation."The pontiff said that...

Sometimes I have to laugh. The ELCA teaches that Jonah and the Whale is a myth intended for teaching a moral lesson. Really? The book of Jonah reads as if it is an actual historic event. It has details that would be un-necessary if it was a made up story. The city Jonah went to is Nineveh, which is an actual city in the world at that time. And to top it off, Jesus himself said it was an historic event! In Matthew 12:39-41, Jesus speaks, ". . .A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none...

OUR effort in Iraq passed a major milestone today: Our troops are leaving the cities. Advisers remain in place. Joint patrols will still occur. And our forces will wait nearby to respond to Iraqi calls for support. But the last of the bases and US-only outposts within Iraq's urban centers will be vacated. Terrorists have already begun testing the new security arrangements. Iraqi forces won't always pass with flying colors. Yet this situation seemed a pipe dream not so long ago: Iraq's security forces, serving an elected government, assume primary responsibility for the good order of their own country. We...

A cuneiform clay tablet that has puzzled scholars for over 150 years has been translated for the first time. The tablet is now known to be a contemporary Sumerian observation of an asteroid impact at Köfels, Austria and is published in a new book, 'A Sumerian Observation of the Köfels' Impact Event.' The giant landslide centred at Köfels in Austria is 500m thick and five kilometres in diameter and has long been a mystery since geologists first looked at it in the 19th century. The conclusion drawn by research in the middle 20th century was that it must be...

British scientists have deciphered a mysterious ancient clay tablet and believe they have solved a riddle over a giant asteroid impact more than 5,000 years ago. Geologists have long puzzled over the shape of the land close to the town of Köfels in the Austrian Alps, but were unable to prove it had been caused by an asteroid. Now researchers say their translation of symbols on a star map from an ancient civilisation includes notes on a mile-wide asteroid that later hit Earth - which could have caused tens of thousands of deaths. The circular clay tablet was discovered 150...

MOSUL, Iraq (Army News Service, Aug. 21, 2006) – Three towns west of Mosul in northern Iraq are benefiting from several newly completed projects as a result of cooperation between local leadership, and members of the 403rd Civil Affairs Battalion. Local contractors completed construction of a new courthouse for the citizens of Sununi on Aug. 7. The month-long project employed 35 local workers and is expected to make the adjudication of laws easier for the judges in the Sunini sub-district by providing a place for judges to meet and hear cases. When inspecting the work, coalition force personnel assessed the...

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2006 – Large-scale sectarian violence as displayed by Sunnis and Shiites in Baghdad has seemingly bypassed Nineveh province in northern Iraq, a U.S. military commander told Pentagon reporters today. "We have been fortunate in that we've not seen that level of sectarian violence in Nineveh province," said Col. Michael Shields, commander of the U.S. Army's 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. Shields gives credit for this positive state of affairs to the efforts of Gov. Duraid Mohammed Daud Abbodi Kashmoula and the senior Iraqi military and police officials serving in the province. "They have great outreach to...

January 26, 2003 Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Psalm: Sunday Week 7 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Reading II Gospel Reading I Jon 3:1-5, 10 The word of the LORD came to Jonah, saying: "Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you." So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD's bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day's walk announcing, "Forty days more and...

1. The garden of Eden was in Iraq. (it sure doesn't look much like Paradise on earth today thanks to Saddam). 2. Mesopotamia which is now Iraq was the cradle of civilization! 3. Noah built the ark in Iraq. 4. The Tower of Babel was in Iraq. 5. Abraham was from Ur, which is in Southern Iraq! 6. Isaac's wife Rebekah is from Nahor which is in Iraq. 7. Jacob met Rachel in Iraq. 8. Jonah preached in Nineveh - which is in Iraq. 9. Assyria which is in Iraq conquered the ten tribes of Israel. 10. Amos cried out...

Christians flee genocide as fear sweeps Iraq By Jack Fairweather at St Matthew's Monastery near Mosul (Filed: 08/01/2005) One of the most ancient monasteries in the world, St Matthew's, stands on a barren mountainside in northern Iraq, its last inhabitant a crusty old Syrian Orthodox priest. Nestled between sandstone crags with views of the hills around ancient Nineveh, now called Mosul, it looks like the final redoubt of the Christian world. Seven thousand monks used to worship here; now there is just one, Father Ada Qadr al-Kars. St Matthew's Syrian Orthodox Monastery was founded in the fourth century AD This...

What there was in the beginning, in the world of the Bible, is what there was in the land now called Iraq. There is nothing left of the Garden of Eden, no artifact at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where myth has placed the Temptation and the Fall. But the great cities and empires from the Books of Genesis and Kings and Chronicles have left their traces: Ur, where Abraham was born; rapacious Assyria with its capital, Nineveh, and Babylon, where the ancient Israelites were carried into captivity and where, as the psalm tells us, they wept...

Capital city of ancient superpower discovered By David Keys Archaeology Correspondent 26 October 2002 British archaeologists have discovered a capital city of one of the ancient world's most mysterious superpowers. The metropolis, covering more than a square mile, was the main western administrative centre of the ancient Median Empire, a vast Middle Eastern imperial state which flourished in the first half of the 6th century BC between the fall of the Assyrian empire and the rise of Persia. The discovery reveals the sheer scale of the threat which would soon be posed to Europe by the ancient Middle East. For...