A drone strike struck a Christian housing complex in Ankawa, the Christian district of Erbil in northern Iraq, on the evening of March 4, damaging a building that had served as a refuge for displaced Christian families since the ISIS war.
According to a statement released by the Chaldean Archdiocese of Erbil, the Blessed Michael McGivney Apartment Complex was hit at approximately 8 p.m. local time in what church officials described as an apparent drone attack.
The apartment complex, owned by the archdiocese, houses diocesan employees and young Christian families who were displaced during years of violence that devastated Iraq’s Christian communities.
Church officials said the building had been largely evacuated several days earlier because of its proximity to Erbil International Airport, a factor that likely prevented casualties.
“Fortunately, the building had been largely evacuated several days earlier due to its proximity to the Erbil International Airport,” the archdiocese said in its statement.
A nearby convent belonging to the Chaldean Daughters of Mary Immaculate also sustained damage in the strike. Church officials said no casualties are believed to have occurred at either location.
The housing complex — known locally as McGivney House — was built with funding provided entirely by the charitable arm of the Knights of Columbus. It was constructed as a refuge for Christians displaced by the ISIS offensive that ravaged northern Iraq between 2014 and 2018, when tens of thousands of Christians were forced to flee their homes in the Nineveh Plain.
Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, who has long been one of the most prominent voices for Iraq’s remaining Christian community, said the attack underscores the vulnerability of minority communities in times of conflict.
“These attacks serve as a hard reminder that in times of war and violence it is always the marginalized who suffer the most,” Warda said.
The archbishop also urged the international community to remember Iraq’s Christian minority, which has dramatically declined in numbers over the past two decades due to war, persecution, and emigration.
“We are now in a time once again where we pray for the solidarity and support from our brothers and sisters around the world,” he said, expressing hope “that these times of violence and war will come to an end, and that our suffering people may yet have a chance to return to lives of peace and dignity.”
Before the Iraq War in 2003, Iraq’s Christian population was estimated at more than one million. Today, church leaders estimate that only a few hundred thousand remain, many concentrated in the Kurdistan region and the rebuilt towns of the Nineveh Plain.
The McGivney House complex, named after the founder of the Knights of Columbus and beatified by the Catholic Church in 2020, has served as one of the most visible symbols of international Catholic solidarity with persecuted Christians in Iraq. The building provided safe housing for families who had lost homes, livelihoods, and communities during the ISIS occupation.