 Okay, let me make you, okay, where are they? There's Lucas. We'll promote to panelists. Where's Muhammad? I hope we didn't lose him. Hi, looks like someone was accessing our Zoom account. So we're just going to have to try this again. Okay, so Mary, I need to make you. Host or you're already host. I'm already host. Okay, great. And then maybe Lucas, we can try your video again to make sure it works. Yeah, can you see me? I can see you. Yes. And I can hear you. Can hear you. Okay. Can I get the permission to share the screen again, please? Also, thank you. You can't see anything, Lucas. Well, while we're waiting for that. Welcome everyone. Thank you so much for coming. Oh, here we are. Okay. Perfect. Thank you all for joining us. I think we're going to go ahead and get started. Welcome. I'm Nancy Mancias, a camping organizer with code pink. And this is on the ground in Iraqi Kurdistan. To learn more about code pink, you can go to code pink.org. That's code pink.org. We will be broadcasting live on YouTube. So happy St. Patrick's Day. Great day to show solidarity with the people of Ireland. And every day is a good day to show solidarity with the people of Kurdistan. In particular, those in Iraqi Kurdistan. Our guests today are Mohammed and Lucas, both with the Christian peacemaker team. Welcome, Mohammed and Lucas. If you have any questions, please put them in the chat box and we will do our best to get them answered. But before we get started in our presentation. I wanted to ask you, Lucas and Mohammed. This week marks the 18th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. Can you talk about maybe where Christian peacemaker team was during the lead up to the war and how it may have affected your members and any thoughts and reflection on the invasion. Thank you Nancy. Thank you so much for the invitation to our code pink partners and having us here with Mohammed. Can I share a little bit about where CPT was in the moment of the invasion and then maybe I can invite Mohammed to share perspective from Kurdistan. CPT came with a group of activists to Iraq in 2002. In their run up to the war. With the hopes of preventing the invasion and also protecting civilian infrastructure. Then during the invasion CPT continued its presence in Baghdad and after things went very bad. And many organizations moved to this secure protected zones by military. CPT continued to partner with local Iraqi people. And through this we were able to start learning what the US and the coalition forces were doing in prisons and those night raids, kicking out the door, smashing everything, taking men from the houses. And then people disappearing and not being able to be found. And so CPT became one of the, in that moment the only organization that was able to find some of those people that were abducted by the forces. And eventually this led up to interviewing people and CPT was able to write a report that actually started to be shared in with the government officials, with different organizations and with the media. And this was one of those first reports that led to eventually to bringing to light all those tortures that the US forces were doing in the prisons. This unfortunately also led to a kidnapping of our team members, four of them. And one of them, Tom Fox, was found killed. And this actually is also an anniversary of 15 years of this, of this assassination of Tom Fox. We just were remembering this several days ago, also in March. So this, that's the kidnapping and also what followed up and CPT became very well known. And so for, for our Iraqi partners, this was, it became to be, it became to be dangerous to associate with CPT. And so actually CPT in that moment decided to leave Iraq, but we have been re-invited by, by, by, by, by, by, by someone who used CPT well to the north of Iraq, to the Kurdistan region, where we actually then started to establish ourselves in 2006. And I think that, that then this will be the history that, that we will, we will share more Mohammed and I about what, what, what the thing has been doing in Kurdistan. Great. Mohammed, is there anything that you would like to add? Thank you Nancy. Thank you Lukas. Hello everyone. This is Mohammed from Iraqi Kurdistan. I'm living in a town called Slemani. Actually, I just want to add that what I remember at that time in 2003 when we hear that the U.S. is coming to Iraq to iterate, to bring democracy, to bring freedom, to bring justice. But like I would say at that time the majority of the Kurdish people at that time, even they were, we were very helpful, helpful and we thought that's this, this time that the regime will disappear and there will be a new, new Iraq and there will be a new democracy for the country. There will be freedom. There will be justice. But unfortunately what we are seeing now is really opposite what we were dreaming about or what we were promised about from the U.S. And so now people in general in Iraq we are, we are suffering because of, like then we have a saying, we say that at that time there were one dictatorship but right now we have thousands of dictators. So what I'm trying to say that it's not really what we were expected as people in general in Iraq and especially the Kurdish because at that time we in Kurdish people in north of Iraq or what is known Iraqi Kurdistan, since 1991 we had our own somehow autonomy or independence from to be, to not be part of the regime at that time. So there were a lot of hops built and but unfortunately still we are suffering because of injustice because of the lack of transparency because of the lack of services like basic services like such as electric water, all these things. And that is what makes people really disappointed about the outcome of the U.S. invasions. Thank you. Thank you, Mohamed for sharing that. And for people who are joining us, this is on the ground in Iraqi Kurdistan with Lucas and Mohamed with the Christian peacemaker team just talked a little bit about the 18th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Now I'm going to turn it back over to Lucas and Mohamed to just give us a presentation, bring us up to date on your campaigns and what exactly is currently happening there on the ground. Lucas, you want to go first? Thank you. We can maybe start sharing about the work that TPD does in supporting civil rights activists and independent journalists. So how many people would like to read that part? That would be great. Thank you. Sure. Like, just give a very brief history how CPT moved to Iraqi Kurdistan after we said that's when the violations started to be escalated in the middle and the south of Iraq, especially in 2004. So CPT based on invitations by some activists they were studying in U.S. when they met CPT for the first time. So they invited CPT to come to Iraqi Kurdistan and to learn about the situation there and try to work here. And it was very good response from CPT in 2006 when they sent the delegations to Iraqi Kurdistan and I personally met CPT for the first time in 2007. So since then I am with CPT and I know this organization and I work with them and we work together. And also like it was at that time what I remember we were more, we mostly focused on the issue of cross-border bombing was happening for decades and especially by Turkey and Iran. But later we will talk more about that which is also another area of work that CPT is working in Iraqi Kurdistan is working with the civil society organizations and activists which is that is one of the, our main area of work that we we build partnership, we build relationship with civil society organizations and activists especially those who are really seeking for justice seeking for freedom, seeking for freedom of expression. So CPT since then especially our main, let's say our main relationship started with some of them in Soleimani here in my town which is CPT office is also located here. It started in 2011 when there were a protest going on here especially after the Arab Spring at that time in 2010 when it started and then the people here in solidarity with those protest were going on at that time. For example this is an image or a picture of that time so as you see the people were gathering in a square in the center of the downtown or the bazaar and for 62 days and the authority were bringing soldiers different types of army groups to kind of like to not let the protester to march or to go different areas in the town and at that time many kind of violations started and then people being shot and then there were a group of activists as you see in there wearing their white vest so this is called peace fence so they create this peace fence between the protestors and the military so CPT joined this peace fence at that time and that was kind of the beginning of building partnership with activists and civil society organizations to together to prevent the military to not attack the protestors or to harm them and it works actually it works but again because of the different types of violence used by the authorities somehow the protester they decided like they were because people killed like people injured they were shooting at the people so that makes people more angry so then we now right now CPT is part of a federation of NGOs which is CPT is a member majority like they are local organizations who are having this federation a member of this federation together we are working, collaborating and supporting each other and also I want to mention another group which is organization ICSSI Iraqi Civil Society Solidarity Initiatives which is also together we are running different types of campaigns we are talking about cross-border bombing it's called here as now stop the bombing and also we are right now actually at this moment we are trying to expand this campaign to make it more internationally to include different types of international organizations that together we can put more pressure on Turkey so again also together we are collaborating to to advocate for the rights of the journalists independent journalists and civil society activists because it is very very needed here in Iraqi Kurdistan that we as activists I mean local people as activists here sometimes they feel very lonely they need international organizations groups activists to be with them and to hear their stories because just to be honest like it is not the same to be an activist here in Iraq to compare it to be an activist in US or in Europe it's two completely different two different like activism work because there are lots of threats to be an activist here in Iraq also in the few years ago like last year there were lots of demonstrations happening in Baghdad and how the authority very harshly responds to the to the protesters they killed them more than 300 activists I mean protesters killed in Iraq and also here recently like in December 2020 like here in my town in Suleymanin there were also more demonstrations happen in December more than nine people killed so that is why it's very very dangerous to be an activist it's very very dangerous to be an independent journalist to not be part of the those the political parties own so if you are doing something beyond that or if you want to be independent and to criticize what the government doing to criticize what the political parties or especially those who are rolling the government it is very risky so this is why CPT and the other international organizations very very needed to see that and to provide more support for the local activists and journalists so like recently our partners we have like five activists which is two of them are independent journalists and three of them are civil society activists are arrested since last year and after they spent five months in a in a you know and then recently last month on February 16 they sentenced for six years because they accuse them that these activists they spoke to the international organizations and the consulates like this is like everyone shocked here including CPT because some of them they spoke to us we are international organization and even we have registrations like we are registered with the Iraqi Kurdistan government to be to work here and they are accusing these activists that they because they spoke to the international organization because they spoke to the consulates and despite that in addition also they accuse them that they or they despise them because they were using their positions as activists or as journalists to create an army group or to fight against the government which is like we as CPT when we present in the two days trial to observe the process of the trial so that was something like to observe how these people are really being accused by the Security Council here that these people are spying for one of the region countries or these people are trying to organize an army groups to attack embassies to attack foreigners buildings and the evidence where those evidence being presented to the court are very very weak evidence like for example these people they were creating a group chat or a Facebook messenger group just you know to exchange some information about for their journalism work and to organize demonstrations like unfortunately here in Iraq you could this time again it's not like in US or in Europe when you want to create to organize the demonstrations you need to have a permission and then in 48 hours if you didn't get response from our permission then you are not allowed to do this or like we have a law which is preventing people to not peacefully gather even if they apply so these people are just trying to organize like a gathering we call it gathering not a protest not marching just to gather in a park in some place just to like read a statement or make a press conference so this is how these people being arrested and being sentenced and these things are really needs to go out needs that the activist and the civil society organization around the world to know this and we are we are very grateful that right now there are several international organizations are really talking about this consulate's published statements the local media here are majority you know are really talking about this issue and there are a lot of I mean not a lot but still there are mostly it's inside like inside Iraq we could understand there are pressures but we need you know international pressure but when we talk about international pressures like what I'm trying to connect it with like for example when there is a when there is a when they say oh there is an al-Qaeda in Iraq oh ISIS is in Iraq so then the superpower countries they send troops right so they send troops to prevent those tourist groups but what I'm saying we need international support we need international people activists journalists civil society organizations to come here not the their troops not the troops of the states not the troops of those governments to come and create a war no we don't want that we want people to support us not the military levels not the state level we need people to do that sorry I think I talked a lot Lucas if you want to add anything more thank you it's a it's very worrying what is happening now and what the security forces are using against civil rights activists and journalists in Kurdistan because in the past there is a 10 years a number of journalists were killed and they were assassinated some of them disappeared and their bodies were found and many many people were put in jails and threatened torture but this time what actually is happening is that the political party that has power in that part of Kurdistan actually decided to to put the group of people on the trial and the trial that was completely manipulated has actually the court has decided that they are terrorists they are they are supporters they are they are spies and and the law that of national security was used against them and so actually this is the first time that this we are seeing this happening in Kurdistan and it's very scary it's really really worrying what can happen and so as Mohamed is saying we hope that also this will cause even bigger outcry there is a big outcry in Kurdistan right now from parliament members from judges from organizations even the consulates spoke up against it because their charge was and the accusation was spying and for speaking to consulates about human rights and to other organizations and so actually there is a big outcry but maybe what also we're hoping is that the outcry grows and that it becomes much stronger and as Mohamed says like that this brings even stronger solidarity with civil rights activists and human rights activists human rights activists and defenders in Kurdistan and independent journalists as well well thank you all for sharing what is happening there on the ground and one thing that you said Mohamed that really sort of made my heart sink was that you feel lonely there and I just want to let you know that even though we are thousands and thousands of miles away from Iraqi Kurdistan you are always in our hearts and in our minds so you may feel alone you are not alone and you are in our thoughts but soon hopefully for those of us who have traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan we can rejoin you and support you but I'm just curious to know is there something that we can do to support you from afar as we are all in quarantine shelter in place orders because of the coronavirus what can folks do who are say in Western Europe or even North America what would you recommend that we do to support you thank you Nancy actually it is true because you know like part of our work we host delegations like twice per year and unfortunately because of the pandemic we couldn't host any for 2020 and we are not sure what will be the situation for this year but of course back to your question what you can do I'm really really feel very happy when for example this webinar that I'm talking with this is a very big step this is a very encouraging for me and for my for the other activists here and for the other organizations that now our voice is going out and now our voice is being here by the by other activists by other organizations we need to do more we need to have more webinar have more seminar be able to connect with the other organization with the other activists and also it is very like right now we are having a campaign for example we are asking people outside of Iraqi Kurdistan to send letters to their consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan in solidarity with the prisoners so that is one thing that people can write a letter to their consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan for example like sometimes here when we do an action in front of you like the United Nations compound or other organizations who are related with the human rights it will be great for example if a group of people can unite to do some actions at anywhere around the world in solidarity of any activists or journalists who have been sentenced here who have been violence used against them so there are different types it is based on the situation of where you are at and what is the situation of the pandemic it is great to keep sending emails letters to the officials either in the United States or in Europe to the government because these governments need to know what is really going on here because my government is telling them everything is perfect here but people need to raise, to break that we as people we need to tell our government your government that no everything is not okay there are human rights violations there are people who are being kidnapped there are people who are being assassinated and we need to keep telling them what is going on here thank you Mohammed Lucas is there anything that you would like to add I put the link to our campaign that Mohammed mentioned in the chat and also maybe one other possibility and one other step could be if you would like to invite you for a webinar the woman journalist Nias Abdullah who is speaking to the media is actually going to speak more about the freedom of press and human rights in Kurdistan so she will be one of our speakers at the CPT Iraqi Kurdistan webinar next month on the 29th of April and she is also one of the people that has received many threats for her work as a journalist and as a civil rights activist thank you so much and then folks can go to CPT.org to sign up for webinars is that the best place for them to go okay great I just wanted to switch gears and talk a little bit you brought up the cross border bombings there are happening maybe you can expand a little bit on that campaign and the role of Turkey and Iran in relation to those bombings thank you so much documenting the Turkish bombings has become kind of one of the main areas of CPT work in Iraqi Kurdistan since 2007 and that is very closely related with the US invasion because after the US and the coalition forces took over control over Iraq they also took control over the airspace and Turkey has made a deal with the United States in pursuing their military campaigns against the Kurdistan Workers Party which they consider as terrorists it's a Kurdish armed resistance group for the rights of Kurdish people in Turkey and in other countries as well so most of the fighters have established their camps and bases and training camps in Iraqi Kurdistan but already since the late 80s beginning of the 90s as Mohammad was talking about how Kurdistan became a largely autonomous area of Iraq in this time the UKK took over control of some of the mountains big mountains on the borders with Iran and Turkey and it was also during the first invasion of US to Iraq and then the sanctions that killed more than half a million people and then the no-fly zone that supposedly US and British air forces were keeping however already in that time Turkey started to fly and bomb so much later years after that there came out some reports of the people who were involved of the pilots or of the operators of the radars who were saying we received an order to turn off the radars and then when we turned them back on the fighters just started to fly they just saw burning villages underneath and those were the results of the Turkish bombing so then during the 2003 invasion Turkey seized its operations but they re-established them in 2007 under the permission of the US again and in 2007 Turkish forces invaded into Iraq they went deep into the Kurdistan territory they reinforced some of their bases they had their since the 90s already and they started their bombing campaigns again I would like to show you maybe a few photos of the results of the bombing campaigns if it's okay it's great and I will share my screen again and so the Turkish forces are running like hundreds are conducting hundreds of bombings a year this bombing is supposedly and officially is targeting armed groups and supposedly is protecting Turkey from violence however what happens is that as we know everywhere there are bombings and where one country is another the results are these bombed homes destroyed villages since Turkey started its campaigns about 500 villages have been wiped out and either burned or destroyed or people had to move out because the life there was not liveable anymore some of the in some of the bombings people died and families died in the cars just going from their family from their from their from their field back to their home like in this car seven family members were trying to get home in the evening many people have been killed including Dunya Rashid who was a 19 year old student who just went to pick some herbs and plants on the mountain because they were able to cook them and also to make a little bit of money for their family and Turkey killed Dunya with a mortar a lot of agriculture like hectares and hectares of agriculture are destroyed and Turkish campaigns usually start in the spring going to the fields like Ibrahim that is here in the photo who has a field of cucumbers what you see behind are other fields that are completely burned and so Turkish bombing starts in the spring it culminates in the summer months about June July when the majority of people are working in the land and trying to harvest and also thousands of shepherd families who take care of sheep and goats go up to the mountains as well and then over winter usually the bombings become less and less and then again in the spring again the bombings happen at any moment so this is a photo from one village where people were just in their field and then they just hear the whizzing sound and an explosion and the shrapneles fly all around damaged the homes Cami Rebatke is a village that only few families stayed because other families had to go to protect their children because of the possibility of the bombing at any time there were several bombings in few months following each other that's a school that has been hit by several rockets and what made the war much worse and I know that Kotpink is a lot involved in anti-war in anti-drone campaigns so I would like to share this picture of the Turkish drone that Turkey developed several years ago and started to use them like more and more in 2016 and 17 and 18 and now at this moment a lot of the bombings are actually done by this drone that is a Turkish made drone it's called Bayraktar TB2 and it's a first armed Turkish drone that Turkey is using and they're highly efficient they're very cheaper than the US made drones and the US has been supporting Turkey with intelligence with permissions to fly in a bomb and also drone intelligence so we know of 35 young people who were working as traders on the border that were killed because US drones spotted them giving information to Turkey and the fighter jets killed 35 people now since Turkey really created its own military drone most of the bombings happened this way and as other countries who are the leaders in the drone wars which Turkey now is actually becoming as well because already they are trading those drones with other countries and these drones Turkey used not only in Kurdistan but also in Iraq but also in Syria and recently in Karabakh supporting the Azerbaijani forces taking over Karabakh with those drones and because of those drones Azerbaijan wanted more and as all the countries are saying with drones things are safer the other contrast it's not true of course it is true I would like to share this map with you it's a map of people that were killed and injured by Turkish mostly airstrikes some of them by artillery shelling in Iraqi Kurdistan since 2015 and that's where since when CPTB started to really keep precise as much as precise documentation of those attacks many of those people died because of the drone bombing many of them and like just last year one person that died one person that died was a shop owner who had two children he just went on a road that has been it's a main road between two regions he saw a friend they stood by the road and they were bombed by a drone without any military target next to them another bombing was a bombing of a family so there was a Payman Palip she was trying to make some money for her family and also for her studies to become a teacher while she was in her shop a grocery store that was in a place with many families picnicking because there is a river some trees people who went there for a day of work and while she was serving customers in the store Turkish drone bombed the store Payman lost a leg in the bombing, was badly injured her children and husband ended up with pieces of shrapnel in their bodies the whole livelihood is destroyed what we know and you know as well as and also many of our people who are on this webinar and listening to us drones make the worst worse and instead of making things safer no they make them worse and the civilian casualty rates has grown since Turkey has been using the drones we meet with people who have been bombed with our family members, we visit the communities we collect data and we start sharing the stories of what happens we amplify people's voices who have been impacted by those bombings we also the probably at the moment the only organization that really builds long term partnerships with the communities and with the families as part of those partnerships we accompany people to meet with government officials to meet with representatives of foreign governments and also we bring together some of the families and we run a campaign that Mohammed mentioned that is called the heroes now stop the bombing that's where the families from different regions that haven't met before started working together to end those bombings and to receive support from the Kurdistan government and Iraqi government our latest action that we actually have about this and we would like to put a link in the chat and we would like to ask you as many of you are from the United States if you could please send a letter to the State Department representative for near years we are asking for diplomacy not weapons so USA already stopped the sale of F-35 fighter jets in Turkey however some of the bombs that Turkey is using are made in the US some parts of the Bayraktar are actually some of them are from other countries and the BEA systems based in the UK are actually working together in Turkey with Turkish military now to create its own fighter jets that will replace follow the path of Bayraktar and as well the Turkish made in Turkey with many parts and components and know how from other countries it's a fighter jet so as we continue I will share the link to our action thank you so much Lucas for that background on the bombing and just looking at the map there it almost looks as if you know there's an encroachment on the land from Turkey in those bombings it almost looks like a land grab although I'm not quite sure what the intention is of Turkey and who knows what's going on in Erdogan's mind but I do want to say that you did mention that the US has stopped selling or put a halt on the F-35s to Turkey for those of you on the call the US is the largest supplier of military weaponry in the world so we do have a petition a letter to President Biden to urge President Erdogan to stop the Turkish air war in northern Iraq and that the US government could take immediate steps to pressure the Turkish government to stop the bombing I do have that petition and I will put that in the chat to you all but I just wanted to see you had mentioned reports is something that you all produce are there any reports that you will be producing I saw the sort of infographic of the bombing but is there anything in the future that we should be on the lookout for at the moment we focused a lot on supporting the partners who are in prison and hoping for that the appeal code will change the decision and also we have been taking part in the outcry of the code decision and as we are now as the pandemic is somehow receding as well and so we will restart as soon as possible and we will continue to do that because for a while we haven't been able to go out of the possibility to bring COVID-19 to the community many of them are remote and far up in mountains but we are still in touch with the families actually the Turkey did a several day very intense action in February and the partners could actually see helicopters with special forces flying overhead and they could hear bombings for several days the action ended with Turkey retrieving as they say 13 bodies of Turkish citizens who Turkey claims PKK executed and PKK claims Turkey killed in the bombings and that is something that kind of brews growing because Erdoğan as Turkey is using this as getting points for other military interventions and other action and other attacks on Kurdistan and so we will see what there is a very high possibility that Turkey will restart a new military action possibly on the ground at the moment already there are 40 bases and outposts in Kurdistan up to 30 miles deep into the Kurdistan territory they actually control some of the territories up to about 20 miles from the border we have some partners living in those places it's very difficult to get there and from the village you can actually look around and you can see 13 bases and outposts of Turkey and people go to their fields and they will be shown by Turkish soldiers either with grenades or bullets it's very silent what has been happening there there is a lot more media attention and people know what will happen in Syria and the Turkish invasion there and they keep a big part of the territory with the yes of Europe and the US but in Iraqi Kurdistan it's happening as well like Turkey controls big parts of the territory now so there might be new things coming and as things come we will be writing about this for sure we are connected with many people in this area Mohammad is there anything you would like to add maybe just briefly sharing that it's very important to mention that it's not only the bombing is not only causing the killing and the injuring the civilians in the area it's also damaging the traditional lives of the villagers like we've been here from villagers they have to leave because they are trying to find a safe area not only for their kids but because of their lifestyle they want to live in a farm in a village but when they go to move to live in a city or to a bigger town that is very very heartbreaking they don't like this type of life they don't want to live like this and they have to find different types of jobs as we are from one of our partners said that I don't care even if I go to sell clinics or cigarettes on a street but because I want my kids to be safe and this is why I don't have any other options I have to leave everything behind myself just for the safety of my kids and also this bombing many wars around the world is creating migrants like Turkey is doing this to make people in Iraq and Kurdistan and in Syria to leave their country and when they leave their country they either go to Europe or to the US or for any other country around the world and then at the same time those countries to come to their country like just imagine that there is a war in your country and the other country they don't let you to come in and they don't give you asylum or whatever and also Turkey is using this as a card against Europe like for example many times we hear that Turkey is putting pressure on the European Union and they will let every single migrants to go to Europe and that is the card that Turkey is using to make the European country silence about what Turkey is doing of killing Kurds or killing other people so then that is again it's become like a political game between the countries that are using this power and because of that other interests, other benefits so they choose to be silent about what those governments are doing thank you Thank you so much Muhammad and wow 40 bases in just a record of stand by the just new news to me and probably to some of our panelists I mean our participants who are watching this webinar I'm aware of time because we started late we're going to go over a little bit I hope that's okay I just wanted to talk about the latest headlines if that's okay and the situation where the bombing is going to be real can you maybe talk a little bit about that because since being here in the US we have a very western perspective in our media and at times we're not really told the full truth so I just wanted to see if there's anything that you'd like to highlight or share with us Muhammad would you like to share some it's a part of a much what happened in Erbil is a part of a long term going on like tensions it's more than tensions but the conflict between USA and Iran so many of the militias that operate in Iraq now are backed up by Iran or were created in Iran during the war on ISIS on Islamic State so then they and as the Daesh Islamic State forces lost the territory they controlled and became now functioning more as a guerrilla force that actually still attacks villages and convoys and people continued to operate the militia backed by Iran ended up controlling big territory themselves so now Iraqi government which also has very in many ways has closed our big part of the government has ties with Iran very friendly it's somewhat trying to control the Shia militias now and there are quite autonomous on the government decisions so many of them of the militias are for obvious reasons opposed to any US presence in Iraq and so for over about a year and a half now have been occasional attacks so from the militias attack US convoys or bringing things for US bases in Iraq or attack the bases and so it is actually what happened in Erbil is quite common, it's been happening a lot around different bases in Iraq the fact that it targeted Erbil is quite unique but those rockets attacking bases have been happening all over Iraq now especially escalated after the US drones killed the general Suleiman from Iran at the end of 2019 and so it is one killing attack, another attack and actually US drones continue to bomb the Shia militias in Syria, on the Syrian Iraqi border in Iraq so it's happening as well it continues and so we were very worried about the possible escalation and possible breakout of an open war which would happen in Iraq, like it would destroy Iraq even more and it would hit Kurdistan very very badly so we really really worried about a year ago now we're not I think so worried about this anymore but we don't know what's going to happen really and so the work you do in the US is very important as well and the US forces have been kind of some of them as much as we know did withdraw from the bases more in the south and moved to Erbil and so it is like there is some movement within the US forces as much as we know as well actually for I think what Lukash said like it is like Iraq is between Iran and the US like we are between the the two big fires or whatever how to name it I don't know but like each each of them, each country Iran and US that are showing their power they are trying to show their power in Iraq not within their country not within their the way they run the country they use Iraq to show that power and of course all these rockets one from there one from here it's happening it's just to show power that hey I'm here I know what you are doing hey I'm here just to to show that we are not silent we are not closing eyes what you are doing we know what you are doing and also like it is very it's very hard for people to really even understand what is Iran and US want from each other like we don't know like we don't understand really what is their issue you know like can someone tell us what is their issue like come on yeah oh my gosh that is a hilarious Mohammed and I think some of us here in the US are asking what is your issue why don't you stop your pissing contest and why don't you come to the table and like adults have a talk there's probably more at play that's beyond what we know but yeah what is your issue just going back to the anniversary of 18th anniversary of the Iraq war we have always said US troops out of Iraq but yet they still maintain a presence in that in that region so I just do see that there was a question in the chat box and I don't want to neglect Kathy's question her question is should Canadians write to their consulate in Jordan unless is there a new consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan or Iraq there is even in Kurdistan we're able to have a meeting with the consular representatives to talk about the bombings in the past so we in the letter to support the five prisoners there is an email through which the consulate could be contacted so thank you Kathy for this great thank you so I'm going to go ahead and wrap up I just want to thank you Lucas and Muhammad for being here and the Christian peacemaker team for your continued work and I just send you blessings and strength and thank you so much for all your courage and just your humanitarian your human rights advocacy and work there in Iraqi Kurdistan the work you do is just unbelievable and admirable and I'm just looking forward to join the next presentation to Iraqi Kurdistan so thank you so much for joining us thank you so much yeah very nice to be here and it's an amazing opportunity we are hoping that we could meet more often it's it's a date we'll plan another one okay be safe Muhammad be safe Lucas bye bye thank you everyone for participating bye bye