Active December 2014–Present | Leaders Yonadam Kanna | |
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Area of operations Nineveh plains
Northern Iraq Strength 5,000 (reserves, claimed) Part of Assyrian Democratic Movement Allies Iraqi Armed Forces
Popular Mobilization Forces (Iraq)
Peshmerga | ||
The Nineveh Plain Protection Units (Syriac: ܚܕܝ̈ܘܬ ܣܬܪܐ ܕܫܛܚܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܐ Ḥḏāywāṯ Settārā da-Šṭāḥā d-Nīnwē; Arabic: وحدات حماية سهل نينوى) or NPU is a military organization that was formed late in 2014, largely but not exclusively by indigenous Assyrian Christians in Iraq, to defend against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The Nineveh plains are a region where Assyrians in Iraq have traditionally been concentrated. By December 2014, the group said it had between 500 and 1000 men in training, that the US was helping train them, and that financial support was coming mostly from Assyrians in the US and Europe. In February 2015 there were unverified reports that the group had 5,000 Assyrian men registered to be trained, 500 are already training for combat, and 500 volunteers from the group stationed in threatened towns.
Activities
In May 2016 NPU said that it participated in fighting at Tesqopa along with Peshmerga forces. In September 2016, NPU soldiers repelled an ISIS effort to retake Tesqopa.
Also in September 2016, NPU worked with the Iraqi army to liberate the Shabak village of Badanah from ISIS, with the support of international coalition airstrikes.
In October 2016, NPU, alongside Peshmerga and Nineveh Plain Forces liberated the village of Bartella from ISIS.
In December 2016 Jameel al-Jameel, a member of the Nineveh Plains Protection Units claimed that Kurdish soldiers at checkpoints were interrogating and preventing Assyrian NPU soldiers and civilians seeking to enter the Nineveh Plain.