Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Iraqi Christian woman details how militants kidnapped her three-year-old

byCNS
4 September 2014 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA
Iraqi parents

Daughter missing: Ayda and Khider Abada discuss with residents of Ankawa, Iraq, on August 28 how their daughter was kidnapped by Islamic State militants in Qaraqosh. Photo: CNS/Sahar Mansour

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Iraqi parents
Daughter missing: Ayda and Khider Abada discuss with residents of Ankawa, Iraq, on August 28 how their daughter was kidnapped by Islamic State militants in Qaraqosh.
Photo: CNS/Sahar Mansour

AN Iraqi Christian woman has described how her three-year-old daughter was abducted by Islamist terrorists.

Christina Khider Abada was seated beside her mother Ayda Abada on a bus when captors from the Islamic State snatched her and took her away.

According to an account by the mother, who followed her daughter off the bus, the crying child was passed from one militant to another while Ayda Abada begged for her to be returned.

Finally, the terrorists pointed guns in the face of the mother and told her to get back on the bus or they would kill her.

Fellow refugee Sahar Mansour interviewed Ayda Abada and her husband Khider Abada as they circulated pictures of their daughter in Ankawa refugee camp, near Irbil, Iraq, in the hope of gaining information about the toddler’s whereabouts.

In a September 1 email to Catholic News Service, Ms Mansour said the abduction occurred on August 24 in the Syriac Christian town of Qaraqosh, Iraq, which had fallen to Islamic State militants on the night of August 6-7.

Khider Abada is blind, so the family did not flee their home. They were among 30 Christian families to remain in the town as the fighters arrived.

The Islamic State fighters began to cleanse the town of Christians after about a week, mainly by putting villagers on buses, which were then driven toward Kurdish-controlled territory – but also, according to Amnesty International – by abducting girls and young women.

Ayda Abada said the family was first ordered by the fighters to go to a health centre on the pretext of undergoing simple health checks, but they were later robbed of all their possessions and told to board a bus.

In her email, Ms Mansour reported that the mother said she seated Christina beside her, but recalled, “then one of the ISIS men came and had a look over the bus and saw my daughter Christina”.

Related Stories

Global executions dropped in 2020 but fears China’s secret figures remain in the thousands

Iraqi woman sent to Australia by Erbil bishop recalls emotional response to papal visit

Amidst the ruins Pope calls Iraqis to affirm kinship under one God

“He took her out of the bus and the ISIS man went to the direction of the health centre,” Ayda Abada told Ms Mansour.

“Then later, another older man from the terrorists came from the health centre and was carrying Christina, and came straight to me and asked me: ‘Is this your daughter?’,” Ayda Abada said.

“I said yes. Both of us, Christina and myself, were crying. I asked them many times that Christina is a little baby and she is innocent, she is just a little baby girl, and I pleaded (with) them and begged his mercy to allow my child to return to me,” she told Ms Mansour.

“I told them that she is very little, (and asked) what kind of crime she had done,” she said. “Then the ISIS men told me in aggressive way: ‘If you want your daughter, we will kill you’. Then these men put the gun to my head and with violent tone forced me to get back in the bus.”

She said: “My heart was with my daughter … I do not know how to live without my child Christina, but ISIS men forced me to go back into the bus. All the time my heart and thoughts were with my daughter, Christina.”

The abduction was included in a September 2 report by Amnesty International called “Iraq: Ethnic Cleansing on Historic Scale: the Islamic State’s Systematic Targeting of Minorities in Northern Iraq” after Ayda Abada spoke to representatives of the human rights group.

She also described the abduction of her daughter in an interview with Irbil-based Ishtar TV.

CNS

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Slaughter of innocents

Next Post

Iraq’s persecuted Christians are true, bold witnesses of Christ, Pope says

CNS

Related Posts

Death penalty: Demonstrators are seen near the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Ind., showing their opposition to the death penalty July 13, 2020. Photos: CNS
World

Global executions dropped in 2020 but fears China’s secret figures remain in the thousands

21 April 2021
News

Iraqi woman sent to Australia by Erbil bishop recalls emotional response to papal visit

15 March 2021 - Updated on 6 April 2021
News

Amidst the ruins Pope calls Iraqis to affirm kinship under one God

10 March 2021 - Updated on 26 March 2021
Next Post
Pope Francis

Iraq's persecuted Christians are true, bold witnesses of Christ, Pope says

Prayers for priests, religious amid trials

Pope Francis and Shimon Peres

Pope Francis is only leader respected enough to end today's wars, Shimon Peres says

Popular News

  • Plenary Council assembly reaches decision day about the Church role of women

    Vote over role of women disrupts Plenary Council assembly

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Plenary Council assembly reaches decision day about the Church role of women

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Plans for indigenous elements, memorials to trauma, to complement Catholic liturgy

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Mass with signs of indigenous respect launch historic Plenary Council assembly

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Called to share the message of Jesus at mission school

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Caritas Australia Richard Landels

‘We must act now’ – Caritas Australia chief says Ethiopian food crisis is acute

by Hannah Kennelly
6 July 2022
0

RITAS Australia chief executive officer Kirsty Robertson has called for an immediate response for ugent famine prevention...

Plenary Council assembly reaches decision day about the Church role of women

Vote over role of women disrupts Plenary Council assembly

6 July 2022
Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk.

Pope Francis condemns Independence Day parade attack and calls for end of violence

6 July 2022
Plenary Council assembly reaches decision day about the Church role of women

Plenary Council assembly reaches decision day about the Church role of women

6 July 2022
‘For the moment, no,’ – Pope Francis dismisses resignation rumours in wide-ranging interview

‘For the moment, no,’ – Pope Francis dismisses resignation rumours in wide-ranging interview

5 July 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping