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Iraq has been added to a “watch list” of countries requiring “close monitoring” of violation of religious freedoms, reports an independently run monitoring group established by the U.S. government.

The decision by the Commission on International Religious Freedom to add Iraq to the list is due to the “alarming and deteriorating situation for freedom of religion and belief” within the war-torn nation, the panel said in its annual report released May 2. Iraq joins a watch list that includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Nigeria and Indonesia.

Speaking from St. Peter’s Basilica on Easter Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI offered a global survey of natural and human-made disasters, including military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and called on Christians to be “apostles of peace.”

A day earlier, the Vatican confirmed that the pope had personally intervened with a letter to Iran on behalf of 15 captured British military personnel before their release.