A man wielding an axe wounds 3 people at the Assyrian Christian new year
parade in Iraq
[April 02, 2025]
By STELLA MARTANY
DOHUK, Iraq (AP) — The annual parade by Assyrian Christians in the Iraqi
city of Dohuk to mark their new year was marred Tuesday when an
axe-wielding man attacked the procession and wounded three people,
witnesses and local officials said.
The parade, held every year on April 1, drew thousands of Assyrians from
Iraq and across the diaspora, who marched through Dohuk in northern Iraq
waving Assyrian flags and wearing colorful traditional clothes.
Witnesses said the attacker, who has not been officially identified, ran
toward the crowd shouting Islamic slogans.
He struck three people with the axe before being stopped by participants
and security forces. Videos circulated online showed him pinned to the
ground, repeatedly shouting, “Islamic State, the Islamic State remains.”
A 17-year-old boy and a 75-year-old woman suffered skull fractures. A
member of the local security forces, who was operating a surveillance
drone, was also wounded. All three were hospitalized, local security
officials said.
At the hospital where her 17-year-old son Fardi was being treated after
suffering a skull injury, Athraa Abdullah told The Associated Press that
her son had come with his friends in buses. He was sending photos from
the celebrations shortly before his friends called to say he had been
attacked, she said.
Abdullah, whose family was displaced when Islamic State militants swept
into their area in 2014, said, “We were already attacked and displaced
by ISIS, and today we faced a terrorist attack at a place we came to for
shelter.”
Janet Aprem Odisho, whose 75-year-old mother Yoniyah Khoshaba was
wounded, said she and her mother were shopping near the parade when the
attack happened.
“He was running at us with an axe,” she said. “All I remember is that he
hit my mother, and I ran away when she fell. He had already attacked a
young man who was bleeding in the street, then he tried to attack more
people.”
Her family, originally from Baghdad, was also displaced by past violence
and now lives in Ain Baqre village near the town of Alqosh.
Assyrians faced a wave of hate speech and offensive comments on social
media following the attack.
[to top of second column]
|
Assyrian revellers dressed in traditional clothing attend "Akitu,"
the Assyrian New Year celebrations, in Dohuk, Iraq, Tuesday, April
1, 2025. (AP Photo/Rashid Yahya)
Ninab Yousif Toma, a political bureau member of the Assyrian
Democratic Movement (ADM), condemned the regional government in
northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region and asked Iraqi
federal authorities to address extremist indoctrination.
“We request both governments to review the religious and education
curriculums that plant hate in people’s heads and encourage ethnic
and religious extremism,” he said. “This was obviously an inhumane
terrorist attack.”
However, he said that the Assyrian community had celebrated their
new year, known as Akitu, in Duhok since the 1990s without incidents
of violence and acknowledged the support of local Kurdish Muslim
residents.
“The Kurds in Duhok serve us water and candy even when they are
fasting for Ramadan. This was likely an individual, unplanned
attack, and it will not scare our people,” he said, adding that the
community was waiting for the results of the official investigation
and planned to file an official lawsuit.
“The Middle East is governed by religion, and as minorities, we
suffer double because we are both ethnically and religiously
different from the majority,” he said. “But we have a cause, and we
marched today to show that we have existed here for thousands of
years. This attack will not stop our people.”
Despite the attack, Assyrians continued the celebrations of the
holiday, which symbolizes renewal and rebirth in Assyrian culture as
well as resilience and continuous existence as an indigenous group.
At one point, as the injured teenager was rushed to the hospital,
some participants wrapped his head in an Assyrian flag, which was
later lifted again in the parade — stained with blood but held high
as a symbol of resilience.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
