The US Congress and Senate are set to debate a bill that, if passed, will authorise funds being made available to Christian militias fighting ISIS in Iraq.
According to Christian Today, the defence spending bill refers specifically to Christians as a group that should be supported.
The bill will be debated on Tuesday, with a committee report stating that “the United States should support appropriately vetted, effective indigenous groups such as Iraqi Christian militias, with a national security mission.”
Steve Oshana, executive director of A Demand for Action, a global initiative which seeks to protect minorities in the Middle East, told Christian Today that the proposed support for Christian militia was a “huge step forward”.
“This is significant because Christian forces in Iraq and Syria have spent the past 18 months building capacity, and in Syria one group has already received support from the US,” he said.
Previously, in a vote of 393 to 0, the House of Representatives declared that “the atrocities perpetrated by ISIS against Christians, Yezidis, and other religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.”
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