Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel Delly decided to postpone the Synod of the Chaldean Church scheduled for October 19-21 in Baghdad, according to the news agency "AsiaNews". The decision became necessary as result of the increasing violence and worsening security situation in the country. The procurator of the Chaldean Church in Rome Philip Najim told AsiaNews of the decision stressing that it was made before the multiple attack against five Baghdad churches in the night from October 15 to 16.

According to Father Najim, “it is clear that these attacks were carried out to stop Sunday’s religious functions,” adding that “they are the work of shadowy foreign forces, not Iraqis.” “Iraqi Muslims do not strike at their Christian brothers,” he said. “Instead, these terrorists came from outside to force Christians out of the country”.

Iraqi Christians now fear for their safety. “We see posters glued to walls and find flyers saying: ‘Christians, get out!’ Things are changing for Christians, not only in Baghdad but in other parts of Iraq as well. In Mosul, for example, the beginning of Ramadan has meant that Christian women must, too, cover their heads and wear clothes to hide their bodies.

Pascale Isho Warda, a Christian who is interim government's minister for displacement and migration, estimated as many as 15,000 out of Iraq's nearly 1 million Christians have left the country since August, when four churches in Baghdad and one in Mosul were blown up in a coordinated series of car bombings.

Some Iraqi Christians are certain that the last bomb attacks are related to recent statements made by Muhammad Bashar al-Fayyaadh, an imam who claims to speak on behalf of the Commission of Iraqi Ulemas. Speaking recently on al-Jazeera Hasad al yawm programme, Al Fayyaadh accused Christians of not having condemned US raids against some mosques in Ramadi (western Iraq).

US forces justified their action claiming that “well-known terrorists were using the mosques as hideouts and as depots for the weapons used against the Iraqi people”. A spokesperson for the US army in Iraq reiterated that “our soldiers never enter mosques but leave that task to Iraqi police”.

Quoted on a local Christian website, Patriarch Delly condemned the action stating that “Christians and Muslims are part of one great Iraqi family. What happens to some happens to all”. Despite claims to the contrary, some Iraqi priests and religious men did write a letter condemning the violence in Ramadi.