Demonstrators in northern Iraq call for return of NPU
Yasmeen Altaji | Mar. 11, 2023
Supporters and officers of the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU), the region’s long-standing Assyrian-led militia reportedly dissolved in 2021, staged a protest in Bakhdida, or Qaraqosh, Saturday morning in a push for the units’ revival.
Demonstrators gathered in front of a Syriac Orthodox church in Bakhdida in the Al-Hamdaniya District at approximately 11:00 am Saturday to call for a return of the units. The NPU was reportedly absorbed by the Babylon Brigade, or 50th brigade, shortly after its political wing secured seats in the 2021 Iraqi federal elections. An NPU official who spoke to The Word said attendance at the demonstration was above 300.
The NPU, also called the 13th regiment, was established in 2014 largely by Assyrian residents in the region in response to advancements by ISIS. The Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM, Zowaa), an Assyrian political party based in Iraq, became the militia’s political sponsor.
In a statement Saturday, ADM called the “intervention of officials of the 50th Brigade in the affairs of the region” a cause of “social strife”. It said the Brigade is responsible for “bringing in unacceptable leaders, interfering in community affairs, and creating problems that almost led to social strife…”.
One Bakhdida resident at the Saturday demonstration told The Word on the phone on condition of anonymity that Assyrian residents prefer the presence of the NPU to the status quo.
“We want the NPU to return. We didn’t have problems then…the NPU was our people,” he said. “With the Babylon Brigade, there are lots of problems, and every day they bring in a new leader. They’re like kids.”
Supporters of the NPU say the militia was absorbed by the Babylon Brigade in 2021 following the success of its political wing, the Babylon Movement, in filling four of the five designated Christian quota seats in Iraq’s parliamentary election that year. Rayan al-Kaldani, a Chaldean Catholic sanctioned by the US for human rights abuses, heads both the party and militia. The Chaldean Catholic Church has denied any affiliation with the Babylon Movement.
In a 2018 report, the Assyrian Policy Institute identified the Babylon Movement as a proxy of the Iran-backed Badr Organization.
This is a developing story subject to updates.
Editor’s note: This story was updated on Mar. 12 to include information from an NPU official.