“Some of them have left for Sweden or Germany. Who does [ISIS] think it is to drive out our fellow countrymen?”

◼ AN Iraqi TV host has sobbed on live television over the treatment of Christians by ISIS, saying “they are our own flesh and blood”. - news.com.au

...The video translated and posted online by the Middle East Media Research Institute shows Mahdi announcing that he wants to “take to task” the government and the people of Mosul, where extremists continue to wage war over the Mosul Dam, and civilians are caught up in the violence.

“They must take immediate measures to help these people,” he said. “Our country is like a rose, and its petals are the Christians, the Arabs, the Kurds, the Sabians, the Shabak people ... These are our countrymen. I don’t know what to say about this.”...

Reddit user Bleunt commented: “Not only is he a more sensitive, emotional and compassionate man than I am for crying over the treatment of Christians in Iraq, he is also a tougher, braver and ballsier man than I am for attacking ISIS in public.”

Another user, Possumz, added: “It’s disheartening when we only see the extremists on the media, because people develop one single image of a whole group of people based on that one extreme position.”...

]Others, however, claimed MEMRI had a history of manipulating footage to push a certain line, with the organisation having links to the Israeli and US governments.