“When 300 Assyrians were imprisoned by ISIS, I had a meeting with General Soleimani and asked him for help. Thanks to his great efforts 225 Assyrians were released, while 75 had been already martyred by ISIS,” Yonathan Betkolia said.
He added “near Erbil there is a town where 30,000 Assyrians live … during the ISIS attempt to invade Erbil, the presence of General Qassem Soleimani repelled ISIS while they were only two hours away from Erbil, and the people were saved.”
General Qassem Soleimani, who commanded a long battle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, was assassinated on 3 January at Baghdad Airport in a US drone strike ordered by US President Donald Trump, while he was paying a visit to Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government.
