Iran infiltrates Iraqi Christian communities to extend Shia Crescent

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi Christians are alarmed by Iranian infiltration within their communities with the founding and arming of a Christian militia in the Nineveh Plains called the Babylon Brigade.

The Babylon Brigade, led by 32-year-old Rayan al-Kildani, is closely aligned to the Badr Organization: a Tehran-founded political party and militia now headed by the former Iraqi transportation minister Hadi Al-Ameri.

The Badr Organization has officially vowed that “any violation of Babylon means a violation to Badr.”

The Nineveh Plains is the ancient homeland of Christians, but it is also vital to Iran as an important part of their Crescent to link the country with Syria where Tehran has proxies.

“The land bridge enables Iranian trucks and weapons to casually go all the way through to the Mediterranean. Iran is on the move,” former congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va) said.

The Shia Crescent is a land bridge stretching from Tehran through northern Iraq, Syria, and then into Lebanon.

Iran is seizing the opportunity to acquire territory from the fast dwindling Christian communities of the Nineveh Plains whose population was forcibly displaced after the Islamic State’s (IS) attacks.

Another warning sign for the Babylon Brigade is the close friendship between Kildani and Iran’s most notorious military figure, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

In an interview with the American network Fox News, the Christian militia leader claimed that “without Soleimani, more of Iraq would have fallen into IS hands.”

Kildani claimed Soleimani wanted to save “holy places” in Iraq and Syria, adding he “personally led the battles to free Christian areas. He wanted to play a lead role in liberating these lands; he wanted to protect the holy places.”

He said that Soleimani was now a “top adviser in the Iraqi government.”

In addition to funding a militia, Iran interferes in Christians’ daily lives.

Many posters of Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini have been placed in Christian areas.

Last month, an image of Virgin Mary at a checkpoint near the entrance of the Syriac Christian town of Bartella was replaced by that of Khomeini and his successor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Earlier in the fall, a school was named after Khomeini and the Iranian Consul General in Erbil, Murtadha Abadi, attended the opening.

Christians who have not yet recovered from vicious IS attacks are now facing a new threat from the Iranian-backed Shia influence in their ancient land.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany