 On 21 July 1933 , more than 600 Assyrians , led by Malik Yaqu , crossed the border into Syria in hope of receiving asylum from the French Mandate of Syria . They were however disarmed and refused asylum , and were subsequently given light arms and sent back to Iraq on 4 August . They then decided to surrender themselves to the Iraqi Army . While crossing the Tigris in the Assyrian village of Dirabun , a clash erupted between the Assyrians and an Iraqi army brigade . Despite the advantage of heavy artillery , the Iraqis were driven back to their military base in Dirabun . The Assyrians , convinced that the army had targeted them deliberately , attacked the army 's barracks with little success . They were driven back to Syria upon the arrival of Iraqi aeroplanes . The Iraqi army lost 33 soldiers during the fighting while the Assyrian irregulars took fewer casualties . Historians do not agree on who started the clashes at the border . The British Administrative Inspector for Mosul Lieutenant Colonel R. R. Stafford wrote that the Assyrians had no intention of clashing with the Iraqis , while the Iraqi historian and son of the prominent Arab nationalist Sati ' al @-@ Husri , Khaldun Husry claims that it was Yaqu 's men who provoked the army at Dirabun . Husry supports propaganda rumours which circulated among Iraqi nationalist newspapers of the Assyrians mutilating the bodies of killed Iraqi soldiers , which further enraged the Iraqi public opinion against the Assyrians . 
