A Small Army is Fighting the Islamic State to protect the Assyrian People
Tough soldiers deny ISIS full control over the key strategic area-the Assyrian Nineveh Plain
Dwekh Nawsha Commander Emmanuel Khoshaba is available for interviews
In August 2014 after Islamic State mortar attacks, kidnappings, killings and massacres of hundreds of Assyrians and the capture of towns and villages on the Assyrian Nineveh Plain precipitated a mass exodus of 100,000 people, a group of 12 men under the leadership of Emanuel Khoshaba, Sec. General of the Assyrian Patriotic Party left Erbil to coordinate their defense, rescue and evacuation. Fortunately, and just as they were about to move out with ZERO firearms and just two vehicles, five of the Assyrian military wives stepped forward and offered their wedding rings and gold crosses to be sold for the purchase of weapons and ammunition. Thus armed, they drove off into the battlefield, recovering weapons others had abandoned. Before them and scattered in dozens of pockets and in dire jeopardy of death or capture by ISIS were thousands of elderly adults, mothers and small children, women giving birth and wounded who struggled to move towards safety in blistering August heat. As the small Assyrian military force advanced towards Bakufa (18 miles from Mosul) they witnessed Kurdish troops in civilian clothes heading in the opposite direction retreating from the battle that they were supposed to wage in defense of the Assyrians in their ancestral homelands on the Assyrian Nineveh Plain. In the meantime, thank God, American warplanes began strikes against ISIS forces advancing on Erbil. Khoshaba commented: "Soon enough my 12-man team was working to extract Assyrian families from the battle zone, even though these families and their rescuers would sporadically come under direct and indirect fire from ISIS units. The reality was that in places the enemy was in front of you and in other locations you ran into him as you moved these people to the rear back into Ankawa, the Assyrian security point in Erbil." The fledgling Assyrian Army established a FLOT (Forward Line of Troops) in Bakufa after first battling to advance there and picking up additional Assyrians volunteering to fight. Soon after their numbers ascended to approximately 60 men and women and they engaged ISIS in intense combat.
Khoshaba´s fighting force-now known as the “Dwekh Nawsha” constitute the Assyrian Military Army confronting the Islamic State and helping to stem their murderous advance. This force includes fighters from foreign countries and seeks direct military aid to battle Islamic State forces effectively in the biggest flashpoint of the Mid East-the Assyrian Homelands of Iraq & Syria. They have denied the Islamic State the ability to take full control of the key strategic area of the Assyrian Nineveh Plain.
Emmanuel Khoshaba Youkhana is Commander in Chief of the Assyrian Military Forces , also known as DWEKH NAWSHA defending Assyrians in Iraq and Syria and is Secretary General of the Assyrian Patriotic Party. The Dwekh Nawsha number into the hundreds and has foreign fighters as well. The unitedassyrianappeal.org helps support their families so they can focus on the fight against ISIS to protect their people in the Nineveh Plains of Iraq, The Kharbour River Valley in Syria and in other locations where Assyrians are in danger due to the Islamic State.
