 Iraqi – British relations faced a short cooling down period during and after the crisis . The Iraqis were previously encouraged by the British to detain Mar Shimun in order to defuse tensions . The British were as well wary of Iraqi military leaders and recommended to transfer Bakr Sidqi , a senior ethnic Kurdish general who was stationed in Mosul , to another region due to his open animosity towards the Assyrians . Later , they had to intervene to dissuade King Faysal from personally leading a tribal force to punish the Assyrians . The general Iraqi public opinion promoted by newspapers , was that the Assyrians were proxies used by the British to undermine the newly established kingdom , was also shared by some leading officials including the prime minister himself . The British and European protests following the massacre only confirmed to them that the " Assyrian rebellion " was the work of European imperialism . 
