TEHRAN -- Iran has never forsaken religious minorities in Iraq in sending humanitarian aid, representative of Iranian Assyrians said on Saturday. Yonathan Betkolia confirmed Iran's humanitarian aid to religious minorities in Iraq adding, "right after the first ISIL strike against Kurd minorities, Iran had been quick in sending out aids to Iraq." "During the first days of the terrorist attacks on the Iraqi religious minorities, Iran had sent them approximately 5,000 canned fish and some 2,000 blankets," he said. While noting that presently a cargo of 10,000 blankets and 300 mats is waiting for approval at Iran-Iraq borders to be distributed among the Assyrians and Christians in Iraq, he said, "a great number of Iranian officials residing in Erbil have had many meetings with Iraqi Christians in order to assess the areas for helping the displaced." "These aids are mostly humanitarian and include food, clothes and tents," said Betkolia, stressing that in current circumstances Iran is the greatest help to Iraqi minorities. Iran's humanitarian aid is aimed at helping the displaced to take shelter in safe areas vis-a-vis the invasion of Iraq by the ISIL terror group. More than 12,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq so far this year, mainly by ISIL, and minorities facing ethnic cleansing are the principal victims and as such have suffered acutely. According to Minority Rights Group International (MRG) several minority communities in Iraq, including Christians, Yazidis and Turkmen, have been subjected to assassinations, kidnappings and sexual violence and are in danger of extinction. These are the communities that have lived on these lands for thousands of years, now forced to flee their ancestral homeland.