Attack by Iraqi opposition group at the Iraqi embassy in Berlin

The German police on Tuesday announced it was able to release all hostages who were held by an armed group in the Iraqi embassy in Berlin, noting that they had broken into the embassy and were able to control the situation and arrest members of the group with two of them wounded.

Iraq had described the operation of holding the hostages as a terrorist act. A statement by the Iraqi foreign ministry said that a group of gunmen on Tuesday attacked the building of the Iraqi embassy in Berlin and wounded one employee and held other ten including the ambassador.

Iraq's representative at the UN Muhammad al-Douri explained that a foreign government is expected to be behind this operation. He expressed his hope that Germany and the other governments who has Iraqi diplomatic representation would work for the protection of all Iraqi citizens on their territories.

The German foreign ministry described the operation of holding the hostages as unacceptable and also the White House criticized the operation and denied the US administration to have had any link with the group which carried it out.

However, a group of five persons calling themselves the Iraqi democratic opposition on Tuesday morning occupied the Iraqi embassy by means of weapons and held ten persons including the ambassador as hostages. After the operation, the group issued a statement in which it claimed that the "operation of liberating Iraq has started from here," from the Iraqi embassy in Berlin.