An Iraqi archbishop has warned a gathering of U.K. peers and MPs that Christians in the region face being wiped off the map without direct military action on the ground.
Archbishop Warda, of the Catholic Chaldean Church, said that Iraq’s Christian communities had fallen “dramatically” over the last 10 years.
Islamist aggression has prompted tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians and Yazidis to flee their homes. In the summer of 2014, Islamic State militants warned Christians to renounce their faith or face death.
“We don’t have much time left as Christians in this region,” the archbishop told the Westminster gathering of cross-party MPs and peers.
“As a Catholic I find it hard to say, but I want military action, there is no other way now.”
The archbishop explained that air strikes were “not enough” to defeat Islamic State fighters and asked for Western ground troops to be deployed.
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