Stockholm (AINA) -- A group of Assyrians from the Assyrian Federation of Sweden held a silent rally outside the British embassy in Stockholm on Wednesday, August 27 to call attention to the cultural genocide that is being committed against the Assyrians in north Iraq by the Islamic State (ISIS). On August 7 ISIS moved into the north of Mosul and caused 200,000 Assyrians to flee in fear from dozens of villages in the Nineveh Plain as well as from Baghdede Bartella and Karamles. Assyrians fled north to Dohuk and east to Ankawa, just north of Arbel.

British foreign minister Philip Hammond announced recently that his country will send arms to the Kurdish militia in Iraq but has said nothing of helping the Assyrians, who have begun to set up their own defense force to defend the Nineveh plain, the stronghold of Assyrians in Iraq.

Assyrians are calling on Britain to help establish an autonomous region for the Assyrians in Iraq in the Nineveh plain, where they can rule and defend themselves.

Assyrians leaders in Iraq and in the Diaspora, as well as the Vatican, NGOs and concerned citizens, are calling for military intervention in Iraq to save Assyrians and Yazidis from the ongoing genocide by ISIS (AINA 2014-08-15).

See Timeline of ISIS in North Iraq