"Now, it is decided that I leave. I will apply for asylum in the United States as soon as possible," Yusef said.

"It is clear that they do not want us in this country anymore -- which is also my country," said the customer service agent at a telephone company.

At least 46 hostages were killed and 60 wounded after Al-Qaeda gunmen stormed into the Sayidat al-Nejat Syriac Christian cathedral in the heart of Baghdad during Sunday mass and began shooting.

Witnesses said all were wearing suicide vests, and that least one militant had detonated his payload.

The drama ended with a raid by Iraqi special forces, with the US military saying it played an advisory role.

"Fifteen minutes into the mass we heard explosions and gunfire from automatic weapons," a 21-year-old man who survived the attack. "Then the terrorists stormed through the main door."

"Father Athir stopped his sermon, and Father Wassim tried to move around 50 of the worshippers into another room. He then tried to start a dialogue with the attackers, but they immediately shot him, together with Father Athir," the man said.

He said the attackers were armed with Kalashnikov rifles, grenades and suicide vests, and opened fire as soon as they entered.

"It was panic. They threw a grenade at seven worshippers who tried to escape."

On All Saints Day in Baghdad on Monday many Christians who gathered outside the church said it the time has come to pack their bags and leave Iraq, than leave the world in a coffin.

The Christian community of Iraq, one of the oldest in the world, numbers about 500,000 compared to 800,000 before the 2003 US-led invasion.

"We have no more place here, what do they want from us?" asked Pius Kasha, vicar of Iraq's Syriac Catholics.

"They killed innocent people at prayer. They want to see us leave, and the government is doing absolutely nothing," he said.

"Everyone will leave. They are awaiting the end of the school year and then they will leave," he said about Iraq's Christians.

There are no more than 20,000 Syriac Catholics left in Iraq, compared to 60,000 before 2003.

On Monday, the cathedral resembled a battlefield, with traces of flesh and blood on the floors and walls.

An inscription reading "God's glory in heaven and peace on earth" and a bas-relief of the Virgin Mary were peppered with bullet marks.

"They are driving us out of our country. They do not want us here anymore," said Athir Adam, a 28-year-old Christian civil servant.

"It is a disaster. Why all this hatred?

"This is the end. We will leave the country and the government will be happy, since it has done nothing to protect us," he said.

The SITE monitoring group reported on Monday that the Islamic State of Iraq, the local branch of Al-Qaeda, had claimed the Baghdad attack in a statement.

An "angry group of mujahedeen from among the supporters of Allah raided one of the filthy dens of idolatry that was always used by the Christians of Iraq as a headquarters to fight the religion of Islam and to support those who fight that religion," SITE quoted the statement as saying.

Last month the archbishop of the northern city of Kirkuk warned that the number of Catholics in Iraq is falling rapidly in a "mortal exodus" that could be fatal for the community.

"The mortal exodus that is afflicting our churches cannot be avoided," said Louis Sako.

The number of Catholics in Iraq has fallen from 378,000 in 1980, equivalent to 2.89 percent of the population, to 301,000 in 2008, or 0.94 percent of the population, according to figures from the Catholic church.

In 2008, 40 Christians were killed and 12,000 others fled Mosul in northern Iraq and nearby towns following a wave of violence that has sent many members of the shrinking community into exile.

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