(AINA) -- An Assyrian member of Iraq's Parliament has called for the government to fund Assyrian security forces for the Christian areas in north Iraq. Imad Youkhana, from the Al-Rafidain party, said after the security forces of the Iraqi army and police, as well as the Kurdish forces, failed to protect the Assyrian Christians in the areas of Nineveh plain, it is necessary to establish Assyrian security forces. He asked the government to allocate funds for the immediate training a militia which would be converted to a regular regiment of troops.

Mr. Youkhana said all the ethnic groups in the Nineveh Plain were shocked and disappointed after being abandoned by security forces, which resulted in the displacement of nearly 200,000 Assyrians from towns and villages in the Nineveh Plain, and hundreds of thousands of Shabaks and Yezidis.