BAGHDAD, Iraq, JUNE 1, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The convent of the Chaldean Sisters of the Sacred Heart was robbed and occupied by terrorists, reported www.AsiaNews.it.
 
 The two women religious living in the Angel Raphael convent told AsiaNews that a group of terrorists broke into the convent while they were away Thursday. Upon the women's return they found everything had been stolen and the convent taken over for military operations.
 
 The convent is in the largely Christian Dora quarter of Baghdad, where an anti-Christian campaign of persecution continues.
 
 AsiaNews cited anonymous sources who said that Shiite militants are behind the attack.
 
 Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly of Baghdad joined the Council of Christian Churches of Iraq in denouncing the episode as an attack against "all Iraq and all Iraqis without exceptions, capable of undermining national unity and fomenting division and discord."
 
 The attack on the convent came just before the start of the Chaldean Church's Synod, which opened its first session today at the monastery of al-Qosh, near Mosul. Security for the Christian community will be at the center of the meeting.
 
 Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, the apostolic nuncio to Iraq, is expected to arrive in Irbil on Saturday to attend the event.