Shafaq News- Baghdad
US Chargé d’Affaires Steven Fagin on Sunday reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to protecting Nineveh’s religious and ethnic minorities, including Christians and Yazidis, during a meeting with Governor Abdul Qadir Al-Dakhil.
According to the US Embassy in Baghdad, Fagin also welcomed Nineveh’s partnership with the University of Chicago and the Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TARII) to establish an international research center focused on heritage and archaeology.
Nineveh is one of Iraq’s most religiously and ethnically diverse provinces. Christian communities have deep roots in Mosul and the Nineveh Plains, while Sinjar is the historic homeland of Iraq’s Yazidis. Both communities suffered heavily after ISIS seized large parts of the province in 2014, with Christians driven from their homes and Yazidis subjected to mass killings, abductions and enslavement. More than a decade later, displacement, reconstruction, security and the return of families remain major issues for both communities.