The newspaper talked about the security pact between Washington and Baghdad, which said that US troops are to leave Iraq by 2011’s end and the pullout’s first phase is to start the middle of next year.
At the popular level, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [www.unhcr.org] reported in a press conference in Geneva that half the Christian people in the Iraqi city of Mosul, 1,560 families in number, have fled the country.
Christian political parties held security authorities responsible for the aggravation of the crisis and accused them of dereliction. They demanded the announcement of results of investigations made by the government to know who is to blame for this.
Major General Muhammad el-‘Askarī, spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, said four persons that had engineered and were responsible for anti-Christian actions have been arrested. But he declined to give more details, said the newspaper.
The newspaper, quoting media reports, said the Iraqi authorities have ruled out any involvement by al-Qā‘idah Organization or extremists in attacking Christians but pointed to political parties participating in the government.
