249 policemen graduated in Ninewa

NINEWA / IraqiNews.com: A total of 249 new police recruits were graduated in ceremonies organized in Ninewa on Monday, according to a police source. “The new policemen will protect churches and Christian residential areas in Sahal Ninewa region,” Colonel Fares Ablahad told IraqiNews.com. “They were trained at the Mosul Police Academy,” he noted. Several Christian families have fled Mosul during the past weeks, 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. SH (S) 1