Three people were injured after a man wielding an axe attacked an annual Assyrian Christian parade in the Iraqi city of Dohuk to celebrate the New Year, officials said.
The event, which takes place every April 1, has seen thousands of Assyrians from Iraq and across the diaspora march through Dohuk in northern Iraq, holding Assyrian flags and wearing colorful traditional attire.
Eyewitnesses said the attacker, whose identity has not been officially established, was rapidly approaching the crowd, shouting Islamic slogans.
He struck three people with an axe before being restrained by parade participants and security forces. Videos that emerged online showed him being pinned to the ground while he repeatedly shouted: “Islamic State, Islamic State remains.”
A 17-year-old boy and a 75-year-old woman suffered serious head injuries. A local security officer who was operating a surveillance drone was also injured. All three were taken to a hospital, local security officials said.
At the hospital where her 17-year-old son Fardi was being treated for a head injury, Atraa Abdullah told The Associated Press that the teenager had come to the parade with his friends.
She said he was sending photos from the party shortly before his friends called to report the attack.
Ms Abdullah, whose family was forced to flee their home in 2014 by militants from the so-called Islamic State (IS), said: “We have already experienced attacks and been forced to leave our homes because of IS, and today we are faced with a terrorist attack in the place where we sought refuge.”
Janet Aprem Odisho, whose 75-year-old mother, Jonia Khoshaba, was wounded, said they were in a shop near the parade when the attack happened.
“He was coming at us with an axe,” she said. “All I remember is that he hit my mother and I ran when she fell. He had already attacked a young man who was bleeding in the street and then he tried to attack other people.”
Her family, originally from Baghdad, was also forced to flee their homes due to past violence and now lives in the village of Ain Bakr, near the city of Alqosh.
Following the incident, Assyrians faced a wave of offensive comments and hate speech on social media.
Ninab Yusif Toma,
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
