https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16094/iran-iraq-christians
“In 2017, after the Nineveh Plains were liberated from ISIS, Iran’s influence started its increase. They now have allied support from Shiite groups in Baghdad… The presence of the Shia Shabak is expanding, particularly in the town of Bartella. They are taking over houses and properties that Christians who fled from ISIS terror left behind.” — Athra Kado, an Assyrian rights advocate, to Gatestone Institute.
“The US, for its national security, should consider Assyrians as its partners, arm and train them effectively as a strong force which will stand in the face of infiltrators.” — Juliana Taimoorazy, the founding president of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, to Gatestone Institute.
In historically Christian areas post-Islamic State (ISIS) in northern Iraq, the growing influence of Iran, as well as demographic changes, are raising concerns in the local Christian community.
“Iranian pressure exists in the Nineveh Plains either in the areas that are inhabited by the Shia Shabak community or controlled by their militias,” Athra Kado, an Assyrian rights advocate and resident of the town of Alqosh in Iraq, told Gatestone.
Assyrians, the indigenous people of Iraq, make up a distinct ethnic community in the region. The Nineveh Plain is considered the ancient Assyrian heartland and is the only region in Iraq where the largest demographic group is Christian. Assyrians there even have their own security force, the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU). The Nineveh plain currently, however, is mostly divided between the Shia militia and the Sunni Kurdish Peshmerga.