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Iran Assyrians support Iraq's Christians

Iran Materials 16 November 2010 08:02 (UTC +04:00)
Iranian Assyrians have held a demonstration in front of the UN office in Tehran to condemn a deadly attack on a church in Iraq last month, Press TV reported.
Iran Assyrians support Iraq's Christians

Iranian Assyrians have held a demonstration in front of the UN office in Tehran to condemn a deadly attack on a church in Iraq last month, Press TV reported.

Hundreds of Iranian Assyrian Christians held a demonstration in front of the UN office in Tehran on Monday to condemn the October 31 massacre of Christians in Baghdad's Sayidat al-Nejat (Our Lady of Salvation) Catholic Church, a Press TV correspondent reported.

They also asked the United Nations to support Iraq's Assyrian Christian community.

On the last day of October, a group of armed men took dozens of worshippers hostage in Baghdad's Sayidat al-Nejat Catholic Church.

52 people died and 67 others were injured in the hostage crisis, which lasted nearly four hours until police intervened.

An al-Qaeda-linked organization has claimed responsibility for the assault. Many Assyrian communities across the globe have held similar demonstrations to express their outrage over the deadly attack.

Qassem Atta, the spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command, told the Aswat al-Iraq news agency that the Iraqi security forces have arrested five of the gunmen.

About 100 people were inside the church for an evening mass when the attack occurred.

MP Yonathan Betkolia, the representative of the Assyrian Christian community in the Iranian Parliament, strongly denounced the attack earlier this month and criticized the international community for their silence about the incident.

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