” ” ” “"Italians are the best, they are soldiers who work. They are here to protect us. We pray the Lord to give us peace and tranquillity". With these words, His Beatitude Emmanuel III Delly, Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, comments from Baghdad the attack that this morning hit a Italian force in Nassiriya, killing, according to the latest news, three Italian soldiers, a Rumanian one and seriously injuring another. "I am sad said the Patriarch for all that is happening to all the people who have come here to protect us. They kill those, but they also kill the Iraqis. They no longer make any difference between an Italian, an Iraqi, an Englishman. Yesterday for example they killed 14 Iraqis. You too should pray and ask others to pray the Lord that this tortured land may live in safety and peace again". The Patriarch speaks of an extremely hard situation for all Iraqis. "Who should we resort to? he says – We always call for help. But who is listening to us? Nobody is. All Iraqis are against these attacks. They happen every day. Dozens and dozens explode every day and hundreds of people die every day. They are Iraqis and non Iraqis. And it’s not only soldiers who die, civilians and children, women die as well. A car bomb kills all those who are around. It makes no distinction between Christians and non Christians, soldiers and civilians. These are our feelings. We are sorry about what happened to the Italians and we hope it won’t happen ever again. I’ll say that again, Italians are good ones".” “
