“I ask for your prayers for those souls we have lost and the severely injured. I ask you to pray for the Syriac community and their families within Iraq and the diaspora.”
One Catholic priest lost 10 of his family members in the fire, Warda said. The injured have reportedly been transferred to hospitals across the Nineveh Plains.
“Many are going from house to house to comfort the mourning. It will sadly not be the first day of funerals as dozens are missing, dozens are severely injured presently receiving hospital treatment for first-degree burns and the inhalation of toxic fumes,” Warda continued.
While Iraq is predominantly Muslim, the Nineveh Plains are historically Christian and are home to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, stretching back more than 1,600 years. The Christian population has shrunk dramatically in recent decades, especially due to the terror wrought by the so-called Islamic State.
Qaraquosh, some 20 miles southeast of the larger city of Mosul, remains overwhelmingly Catholic despite nearly all Christians being forced to flee under ISIS occupation beginning in 2014; the town was liberated two years later. Pope Francis visited the town of 60,000 during the last full day of his 2021 visit to Iraq.
Warda said the tragedy has “brought the people of Iraq together again with the [Sunni Muslims] canceling their celebrations of the birth of the Prophet Mohammad.”