President grants Mosul churches 1b. dinars

NINEWA / IraqiNews.com: The churches in Mosul city have received 1 billion Iraqi dinars in assistance from President Jalal al-Talabani, according to an official source. “President Talabani’s assistance, totaling 1 billion Iraqi dinars (1 U.S. dollar= 1,118 Iraqi dinars) has been delivered to the churches in the city,” a source from the office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Mosul city, Hareem Kamal Agha, told IraqiNews.com. The money will be distributed to displaced and poor Christian families in the city, Agha explained. Over 2,000 Christian families fled Mosul in September, while Iraqi security sources said that a few Christians were killed in separate incidents in the city, signaling an increase in the wave of attacks against religious communities in the northern volatile city. Mosul, the capital city of Ninewa, lies 405 km north of Baghdad. The original city of Mosul stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient biblical city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial areas on both banks, with five bridges linking the two sides. Despite having an amount of Kurdish population, it does not form part of the area controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government Kurdistan RegionG). There are different communities in Mosul like Christians, Shiites and Kurds along with a Sunni majority. The fabric Muslin, long manufactured here, is named for this city. Another historically important product of the area is Mosul marble. The city is also a historic center for the Nestorian Christianity of the Assyrians, containing the tombs of several Old Testament prophets such as Jonah, Yunus in Arabic, and Nahum. SS (S) 1