Iraqi girl abducted by ISIS reunited with family after three years

Moscow, June 15, 2017

Young Christina Abada was finally reunited with her family on Friday, June 9, after three years of separation. The girl, just three years old when she was kidnapped as her family fled the city of Qaraqosh, was rescued by Iraqi Special Forces and returned to her family at a refugee camp near Erbil, reports Fox News.

The family heard many rumors that their daughter was still alive for the first two years, but the stories had all but stopped over the past year, reports World Watch Monitor.

“With all that we have been through, we are overjoyed that our Christina has been returned to us safely. I thank all those who have prayed for her safe return,” her brother Yaz Khedher said, commenting on his family’s two years spent living in a caravan, and now in the refugee camp.

“I thank God for her coming back. We’re happy that people prayed for us,” her mother exclaimed in a Twitter video from local journalist Steven Nabil.

Christina was abducted by ISIS terrorists in August 2014. Hundreds of thousands of Christians had already fled from Iraq, but her family had stayed behind, hoping for mercy from the Islamic State as her father is blind. The remaining Christians were rounded up for fake medical check-ups, when one of the jihadis grabbed Christina from her mother’s arms.

“One of the Da’esh [ISIS members] came and inspected the people on the bus,” Christina’s mother Ayda told humanitarian organization Open Doors International in July 2015. “He walked up to us. He took my little girl from my arms and just walked away.” That was the last time her family saw her until Friday. Sources in Mosul report that Christina wound up living in the Tanak neighborhood of the city with a Muslim family that found her alone in a mosque.

“It is a very happy moment; everybody is dancing and clapping and singing,” one Christian woman at the camp said. “She looks OK, quite healthy. I believe she must have been in the house of a family who took good care of her.”

6/15/2017

See also
Huge cross erected near Mosul after liberation from ISIS Huge cross erected near Mosul after liberation from ISIS Huge cross erected near Mosul after liberation from ISIS Huge cross erected near Mosul after liberation from ISIS
As a symbol of victory of light over darkness, of Christ over Satan, a giant cross has been erected on a hill in the Iraqi town of Telekuf-Tesqopa, just seventeen miles from Mosul, following the expulsion of ISIS Islamic Jihadists. Republicans more likely to understand, admit that Islam is violent Republicans more likely to understand, admit that Islam is violent Republicans more likely to understand, admit that Islam is violent Republicans more likely to understand, admit that Islam is violent
A new CBS poll reveals that more than two-thirds of Democrats believe that Islam is no more violent than other religions around the world. Meanwhile, nearly two-thirds of Republicans grasp and are willing to admit the violent nature of Islam, especially as compared to other religions. Near Mosul, church bells ring out in a Christian town freed from terror Near Mosul, church bells ring out in a Christian town freed from terror Near Mosul, church bells ring out in a Christian town freed from terror Near Mosul, church bells ring out in a Christian town freed from terror
Inhabited by Assyrians since the first century, Bartella is one of the oldest Christian towns in the world. It was home to some 15,000 people until the summer of 2014, when they fled Isil’s lighting strike across northern Iraq.
Comments
Soha Sidhom 10/20/2017 3:35 am
Good evening,

I am a Developer Manager at Take Heart, missiontakeheart.org. We are a Christian mission non-profit 501(c)(3), based in New York, and supporting Churches in Egypt, Syria and Iraq. Our focus is on the persecuted, and our goal is the preservation of the church in areas where it has become near impossible. We have been expanding our support since 2015 across the Middle East and Africa. We are seeking partners to assist us in developing more comprehensive educational services and medical assistance. Please visit our website to learn more, and I hope to hear from you regarding support and assistance.

Thank you
Soha Sidhom
Paok6/15/2017 9:50 pm
Glory to God! This is great news. The article however, fails mention the girl’s ethnicity, which is Assyrian. The Assyrian Christians have been some of the greatest victims of Islamic "terror" since the very beginning of Mohammedanism. Today, they are merely labeled as "Iraqi Christians", “Syrian Christians” or "Kurdish Christians" but this is simply because the Assyrians are a thorn in the side of the people that have taken their lands, ie Arabs, Kurds, Persians, Turks etc. It is far easier to deceive the western mind when you can simply call them "Christians", because most will simply assume that they converted from Mohammedanism to Christianity, since very few westerners even realize that Christianity came first throughout the entire Middle East. The Assyrians have not only survived over 2000 years of persecution, but their culture has also survived Islamization and Arabization unlike the church of Antioch, which today liturgies in Arabic and encourages its people to cling to a false Arab nationalism even though, less than 200 years ago, the Church of Antioch Liturgiesed in Syriac, and identified as Syrian Aramean, and not Syrian Arab! This is a great tragedy in the history of Christianity and the Orthodox Church! Today only the Assyrians speak the Eastern Aramaic dialect that our Lord Jesus Christ, His most pure Mother and all the Apostles spoke. For this reason alone they should at least be given the decency of correct and proper identification.
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