Iraq Christians flee as Islamic State takes Qaraqosh

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Iraqi Christians who fled the violence in the village of Qaraqush, about 30 kilometres east of the northern province of Nineveh, sit in Saint-Joseph church in the Kurdish city of Erbil" height="351" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/76804000/jpg/_76804500_4599df40-a326-42fd-84a5-cba899a2cbd0.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="624" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="width: 624px;">Many of the Iraqi Christians who fled the violence have arrived in the Kurdish city of Erbil</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="caption full-width"> </div><br /><b>Up to a quarter of Iraq's Christians are reported to be fleeing after Islamic militants seized the minority group's biggest town.</b><br /><br />The Islamic State (IS) group captured Qaraqosh overnight after the withdrawal of Kurdish forces.<br /><br />IS has been gaining ground in northern Iraq since June, and also controls some of Syria.<br /><br />The US has warned that the situation for Iraq's minority groups threatens to become a "humanitarian catastrophe".<br /><br />``We are gravely concerned for their health and safety," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.<br /><br />But he refused to confirm a New York Times report that the US is considering air strikes to help the Yazidi community, another minority group in northern Iraq that has been targeted by IS.<br /><br />About 50,000 Yazidis are thought to have been trapped in the mountains after fleeing the town of Sinjar - although the UN says some of them have now been rescued.<br /><br />The United Nations Security Council is due to meet in emergency session later on Thursday to discuss the situation. <br /><br />ens of thousands of religious minorities have been forced to flee since IS, a Sunni Muslim group formerly known as Isis, launched its onslaught. <br />IS says it has created an Islamic state in the territory it controls.<br /> In other developments:<br /> <ul><li> A suicide bombing in a Shia Muslim area of Baghdad killed at least 14 people</li><li> IS said it had captured the strategic Mosul dam on the Tigris river - a claim denied by Kurdish forces who insist they are still in control</li><li> At least six people died in a car bomb attack near a Shia mosque in the northern city of Kirkurk. </li></ul><br /><b>Plea for help</b><br /><br />A majority of Nineveh inhabitants left their homes overnight, according to Fraternite en Irak, an international Christian organisation based in Paris.<br /><br />As many as 100,000 people are believed to be fleeing toward the autonomous Kurdistan Region.<br /><br />Pope Francis has made an impassioned appeal to the international community to do much more to address the crisis.<br /><br />A Vatican statement said the Pope had appealed for "all necessary help" to be given to those forced to flee their homes, "whose fate depends entirely on the solidarity of others".<br /><br />And Minority Rights Group International has warned that Iraq's multi-ethnic future is now at grave risk.<br /><br /><b>Christian 'catastrophe'</b><br /><br />Kurdish forces, known as the Peshmerga, have been fighting the IS militants' advance for weeks.<br /><br />The Peshmerga's commander in Qaraqosh reportedly told the town's archbishop late on Wednesday that the forces were abandoning their posts.<br /><br />Several senior clergymen in Nineveh confirmed the town had fallen.<br /><br />"It's a catastrophe, a tragic situation: tens of thousands of terrified people are being displaced as we speak," said Joseph Thomas, the Chaldean archbishop of the northern city of Kirkuk.<br /><br />Eyewitnesses in Qaraqosh said IS militants were taking down crosses in churches and burning religious manuscripts.<br /><br />The town - referred to as Iraq's Christian capital - is located 30km (19 miles) south-east of the city of Mosul, which was captured by IS in June.<br /><br />Last month, hundreds of Christian families fled Mosul after the Islamist rebels gave them an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a special tax or be executed.<br /><br />Iraq is home to one of the world's most ancient Christian communities, but numbers have dwindled amid growing sectarian violence since the US-led invasion in 2003.<br />

Iraq Christians flee as Islamic State takes Qaraqosh

Many of the Iraqi Christians who fled the violence have arrived in the Kurdish city of Erbil Up t...

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