ACCORDING TO IRAQ’S NATIONAL BOARD CHAIRMAN, ASSAULT AGAINST CHURCHES
IN MOSUL HAS PURELY ANTICHRISTIAN CHARACTER

YEREVAN, December 9 (Noyan Tapan). The RA Ministry of Foreign Assairs
issued a press release about the assault made against the Armenian
Apostolic and Chaldean churches in Iraq that reads:

“After the explosion of two mosques in Iraq on December 5 an assault
was made against the Armenian Apostolic and Chaldean churches in
Mosul. Before that these armed groups had stated that a church would
be exploded for each exploded mosque. On December 7, at noon unknown
armed people broke into the Armenian church under construction, forced
all the people out of the building and declared they were going to
destroy it. After that a car with explosives was driven to the church
entrance and exploded, as a result of which the building was severely
damaged.

By the same scenario an attack was made on the Chaldean church, the
only difference being that a great fire broke out there destroying all
the property inside. There were no victims in both cases. On the
morning of December 8 some armed people appeared again at the Armenian
church and started looting everything.

According to the opinion expressed by Iraq’s Armenian National Central
Board Chairman, these asssults have purely anti-Christian character
witout any ethnic nuance.”