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AP Photo/Hadi Mizban
World News

Christian "heartbroken" by family death reported in Baghdad bombing

A truck containing explosives detonated in the city's predominantly-Shiite Karada district on Sunday evening, leaving at 149 people dead and 192 people injured.

The terror attack, the deadliest single bombing to strike Iraq in more than ten years, targeted an area popular with shoppers which was busy with people breaking their daily fest for Ramadan.

Speaking about concern for his family members and friends in Iraq, Nineb Limassu told Premier's News Hour: "It is beyond concern at the moment.

AP Photo/Hadi Mizban

"We do not live a comfortable life even though we are in the security of the West because we are constantly in fear when the phone rings or when we open an email or receive a text message it's like waiting to hear the bad news. Nothing good has been coming out of Iraq for a long time now."

The Iraqi-born academic is an Assyrian studies expert at the University of Cambridge and founder of the Firodil Institute, an organisations which campaigns for the rights of Assyrian Christians.

Referencing the colonial history of the region, Nineb went on to say the world has a role in play in helping build peace in Iraq, adding: "We are morally responsible to make sure that the people of Iraq - especially the minorities such as the Assyrian Christians and Yazidis - that Iraq is a safe place for all Iraqis.

"What is happening in Iraq actually backfires on the West, as long as we don't care about what is happening in other parts of the world and we don't take meaningful action to seek the well being of countries such as Iraq. It is undeniable that we (countries outside Iraq) do have a hand in it."

Speaking on Sunday evening, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered that new X-ray systems be installed on the country's provincial borders and greater ariel surveillance be undertaken over Baghdad.

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