World Assyrians Leader Declares Public Mourning for Massacre of Iraqis by ISIL

TEHRAN (FNA)- Head of the World Assyrians Forum Yonatan Betkelia in a statement on Monday announced that the worldwide Assyrian community has declared public mourning on the sad occasion of the slaughter of Iraqi civilians by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group.

“The tragic incident inflicted on the Assyrians in Iraq by the hated ISIL group is so huge that many international figures and organizations, including Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, have called on the world people to stand against the anguish and displacement of the Assyrians of Iraq,” Betkelia, who also represents the Iranian Assyrians at the parliament, said in a statement issued today.

Meantime, the statement noted the Israeli massacre of the Palestinians in Gaza, and said the Zionist regime’s oppression against the oppressed Palestinians and the defenseless and innocent children and women of Gaza is not less than the ISIL’s tragic crimes.

“The World Assyrian Forum condemns any kind of terrorist action and calls on the UN and all countries claiming to be supporters of Human Rights to take action against such moves,” the statement added.
Although the ISIL has practiced similar crimes, including execution and mutilation, against the followers of all religious faiths, except those Salafi and Takfiri groups which have voiced allegiance to its self-declared Caliph, its recent crime against Iraq’s Christian community which has caused a Christian exodus from Mosul has sparked outrage.

Christian families streamed out of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Saturday after the Takfiri terrorists of the ISIL said they would be killed if they did not pay a protection tax or leave the areas under their control.

Iraq’s prime minister on Sunday condemned the ISIL’s actions against Christians, saying they reveal the threat the jihadists pose to the minority community’s “centuries-old heritage”.

“What is being done by the Daesh terrorist gang against our Christian citizens in Ninevah province, and their aggression against the churches and houses of worship in the areas under their control reveals beyond any doubt the extremist criminal and terrorist nature of this group,” al-Maliki said in a statement released by his office, using the Arabic acronym for the ISIL.

“Those people, through their crimes, are revealing their true identity and the false allegations made here and there about the existence of revolutionaries among their ranks.”

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