Iraq's first Christian brigade successfully jumped through fiery hoops to complete training Thursday and take its fight up against Daesh, AFP reported.
About 600 men have been training in the town of Fishkhabur, northwest near the borders of Syria and Turkey. The Christians will be answering to the autonomous Kurds and peshmerga fighters, who have been playing a pivotal role in the fight against the extremists.
Most Iraqi Christians are currently living in an area between Mosul and Erbil, both of which are currently occupied by Daesh. Organized by Kurdish special forces, the course provided physical training, military lectures and shooting exercises to prepare the brigade for war.
"All the participants are volunteers... and want to liberate their land from ISIS and then protect it," training academy Cmdr. Abu Bakr Ismail told AFP.
Reports have said up to 100,000 Assyrian Christians fled their homes in early August when Daesh militants overtook areas controlled by the peshmerga, places known to be some of the oldest Christian communities in the country. The communities have been targeted by the extremists before when Daesh kidnapped more than 200 Christians in Iraq last month.
The brigade, known as "Tiger Guards," was formed from an Assyrian force originally meant to protect churches in 2004, AFP reported.
