Three people have been hospitalised and an official investigation launched after a man attacked a Christian festival in northern Iraq.
Thousands of people from the Assyrian Christian community were walking through the city of Dohuk to celebrate Akitu, a new year festival that is marked with colourful clothing and flags.
According to GB News, this year's event was disrupted by a lone man with an axe, who was shouting “Islamic State, the Islamic State remains”. The man was restrained by other members of the crowd.
A 17-year-old boy and a 75-year-old woman received skull fractures and a member of the security services was also hospitalised. Some of those injured are reportedly in a critical condition.
While it is believed that the attack was the work of a lone individual, rather than a planned action by a terrorist group, members of the Christian community have called on the Iraqi government to counter extremist ideology in the country.
Ninab Yousif Toma, a member of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM), said, “We request both governments to review the religious and education curriculums that plant hate in people's heads and encourage ethnic and religious extremism.
"This was obviously an inhumane terrorist attack."
Toma noted that, while the attacker was a Kurdish Muslim, Christians have generally been able to celebrate Akitu peacefully since at least the 1990s.
He said, "The Kurds in Duhok serve us water and candy even when they are fasting for Ramadan. This was likely an individual, unplanned attack, and it will not scare our people.
"The Middle East is governed by religion, and as minorities, we suffer double because we are both ethnically and religiously different from the majority.
"But we have a cause, and we marched today to show that we have existed here for thousands of years. This attack will not stop our people."
Christians in the area are likely to be filing a lawsuit related to the incident.
