by the summer of 1918 almost all surviving assyrians had fled to tehran or to existing assyrian communities or refugee camps in iraq such as baqubah. local kurds, arabs and azeris took the opportunity of the last phases of world war i to rob assyrian homes, murder civilians and leave those remaining destitute. the critical murder that sowed panic in the assyrian community came when kurdish militias, under agha ismail simko, assassinated the patriarch, mar benyamin shimon xix, on march 3, 1918, under the pretext of inviting him to negotiations, although the assyrian leader malik khoshaba exacted revenge upon simko by attacking and sacking his citadel, forcing the kurdish leader to flee for his life.