Breaking News: Baghdad Church Massacre 2010

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Gunmen have taken around 40 worshippers hostage in a central Baghdad church, Iraqi police say.

The gunmen first attacked the stock exchange in the Iraqi capital before moving to a nearby Assyrian Catholic church, where a Sunday evening service was being held.

At least six people were killed in the attacks, police said.

The gunmen are reportedly demanding the release of al-Qaeda members imprisoned in Iraq and Egypt.

According to the police, several other people were wounded.

The attackers are also holding two priests at the Our Lady of Salvation Church, the Chaldean Bishop Shlemon Warduni told the AFP agency.

"What we know is that a number of worshippers and two priests are being held hostage at the church by terrorists," he said.

Bittersweet memories for Iraqis

A local television station, al-Baghdadia, said it had been telephoned by the suspected attackers, who claimed they were from the organisation Islamic State of Iraq - an umbrella group embracing al-Qaeda and other militant groups.

The broadcaster said the men were demanding the release of al-Qaeda prisoners in Iraq and Egypt.

It reported that the men spoke in classical Arabic, which could imply that they are not from Iraq.

The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad said the church in Karada district was surrounded by security forces and the area sealed off.

There were reports that the gunmen threatened to shoot the hostages if the church is stormed by security forces.

In 2008, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho, was kidnapped by unknown gunmen and found dead two weeks later.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11463544
 
Iraqi police free Catholic hostages from Baghdad church

Suspected al-Qaida gunmen attacked church in centre of capital, taking 100 people prisoner
 
Sunday 31 October 2010 19.19 GMT

Iraqi police today stormed a church which had been taken over by suspected al-Qaida-linked gunmen, releasing about 100 worshippers who had been taken hostage, Iraqi and US officials said.

"The operation has finished and we released all the hostages," Brigadier General Ali Ibrahim, the commander of the federal police in south-eastern Baghdad, said.

US military officials ? who watched the rescue operation from helicopters above the scene ? confirmed the report.

Gunmen attacked the Syrian Catholic church in central Baghdad, detonating three bombs before fighting battles with security forces and taking hostages in the building, a security official said.

Younadam Kana, a Christian MP, said parishioners who had called him from inside the church estimated that the gunmen had held some 100 people hostage.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/31/iraq-catholic-hostages-released
 
BBC said 25 of the parishioners were killed.  But nothing confirmed yet.  They did use the words "Blood Bath" in their article title though, so I can't imagine the news getting any better.
 
Iraq will never be safe unless these foreigners are all killed or deported by force.  They have no problem with killing Iraqis in cold blood.  No regrets at all.

Again, Thanks president Bush for opening our borders to every known terrorist with an agenda.
 
The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says there are different figures from different sources for the number of hostages and attackers involved, and how many of each were killed or captured. But some of the worshipers were reported among the dead and injured. The US military said up to 10 hostages, seven members of the Iraqi security forces and seven gunmen were killed, according to the Reuters news agency.
 
I?d like to see people try down play this one ?oh all Iraqi?s are dying Assyrians or Iraqi Christians are not the only ones suffering?
 
Some pictures following this horrific attack:

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ASHOOR
 
At least 40 people have been killed with more injured.... a friend of mine in Baghdad told me this... he is a Muslim but his neighbor is Christian... they were looking for him all over the hospitals in Baghdad....they found his body in Madinat Al-Tib ... his name was Fadi..... RIP

I'm crying.. I really am...Iraq is fucked and the future looks very ominous...
 
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Iraq-Dozens-Are-Killed-In-A-Siege-At-A-Catholic-Church-In-Baghdad-Taken-Over-By-Armed-Militants/Article/201011115788789?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15788789_Iraq%3A_Dozens_Are_Killed_In_A_Siege_At_A_Catholic_Church_In_Baghdad_Taken_Over_By_Armed_Militants_


At least 24 people have been killed after Iraqi security forces stormed a Catholic church in central Baghdad to free dozens of hostages being held by gunmen.


15788785.jpg

Youth freed after the siege was brought to an end by security forces


Ten hostages are believed to be among the dead, along with seven members of the Iraqi security forces and at least seven of the attackers.

About 100 people were attending an evening Mass at Our Lady of Salvation when the gunmen moved in.

They are believed to have demanded the release of jailed al Qaeda militants.

A local TV station, al Baghdadiya, said it had received a phone call from someone claiming to be one of the attackers.

He said they were from the Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni militant umbrella group which includes al Qaeda in Iraq.

Residents of Baghdad's Karada district, where the siege took place, said they first heard a loud explosion followed by gunfire.

Police said a group of armed men first attacked the Iraq Stock Exchange building, then took over Our Lady of Salvation just across the road.



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The Iraqi security forces apparently made no effort to negotiate with the gunmen


One person inside the church told reporters the gunmen "came into the prayer hall and immediately killed the priest".

Security forces stormed the building after sealing off the surrounding area.

During the clashes with security forces the militants reportedly threw grenades and a number blew themselves up.

Apparently no attempt was made to negotiate with them and bring the siege to a peaceful conclusion.

Witnesses also said they saw US troops on the ground and US military helicopters hovering above the church, although the extent of their involvement was not immediately clear.

"The operation has finished and we released all the hostages," said the commander of police in south-eastern Baghdad, Brigadier-General Ali Ibrahim.

Many churches in Iraq have been bombed in recent years and priests kidnapped and killed.

 
Baghdad -- At least 10 Christian worshippers were killed and about thirty wounded tonight, when Iraqi security forces stormed a Baghdad church in which terrorists wearing explosive vests were holding them hostage.

The raid also killed seven Iraqi soldiers and police officers. The violence erupted just after 9pm, almost four hours after a group of between six and eight gunmen wearing military uniforms stormed Our Lady of Salvation Chaldean Catholic church in the inner-city suburb of Karrada.

Worshippers caught up in the carnage described their ordeal to the Guardian as they fled the church. They said the terrorist attack was heralded by a car bomb outside the fortified church gate at 5:30pm. The two priests, who were about to begin mass ushered at least half of their 120-strong congregation to a small room in the back of the ornate building, in a bid to protect them.

"After a while one of the terrorists opened the door and threw in a bomb," said a man who identified himself as Bassam. "There were injuries. They killed people, they injured people," he said, before collapsing on the road outside the church. "Where is our father?" he screamed," referring to his priest. "Where is our father?"

For the next four hours, the terrified congregation cowered inside the room. The streets of central Karrada were shut down and darkened, with only flares from circling helicopters illuminating a pitch black sky. As the Iraqi forces closed in, militants inside the church threw sound grenades and detonated several larger bombs.

Local television station, Al-Baghdadia reported that one of the gunmen had called the network in the early stages of the seige, identifying himself as a member of an al-Qaida-aligned group, the Islamic State of Iraq. He demanded the release of prisoners in Iraq and Egypt.

The station said the caller spoke in classical Arabic, in what was seen as an attempt to disguise an accent that was identifiably non-Iraqi.

A three-vehicle American patrol arrived at the scene around 8:30pm. About eight US soldiers -- now a rarity on the streets of Baghdad -- joined Iraqi counter-terrorism units outside the church walls.

"This won't take long," said an Iraqi army captain at the scene. "It will be over in half an hour."

Ferocious gunfire heralded the raid -- almost on the captain's cue -- followed by three loud booms, which security officials at the scene said were caused by terrorists detonating explosives strapped to their body as troops advanced.

A second burst of shooting followed the crack of sniper rounds from nearby rooftops. Eerie silence lasting around 5 minutes then followed, before a soldier called frantically for an ambulance -- a fleet of which had been kept waiting about 500 metres away.

For the next forty minutes, a cacophony of screeching ambulances carried away the dead and injured. Walking wounded and survivors without injuries stumbled past them through the mayhem.

Among them were two elderly ladies in their blood-stained Sunday best, several children trembling too much to walk and a traumatised elderly couple searching in vain for their priest.

The priest they call Father Rafael is believed to have survived, but his colleague, Father Wissam, is believed to have been killed.

Bewildered and frantic, the survivors collapsed onto a median strip crying for telephones to call their families.

"I am going to leave Iraq with my family tomorrow," said Bassam, an employee of an internet company. "Why am I here?" he wailed. "Look at this -- this is Iraq."

By Martin Chulov
www.guardian.co.uk
 
As per the article I posted above, we all know what will this lead to: a new wave of our people leaving Iraq, which is very very frustrating.

Just when you thought we had gone a few months without any major terrorists activities in Iraq, comes this!

ASHOOR
 
God bless them. 

Free_Assyria said:
I?d like to see people try down play this one ?oh all Iraqi?s are dying Assyrians or Iraqi Christians are not the only ones suffering?
Click to expand...

Don't worry, Zowaa will come out with this statement soon.

 
Death toll rises after 'church massacre'
by Emmanuel Brikha

-          More than 52 dead
-          More than 70 injured, dozens critical
-          Militants killed and some arrested
-          Priest fighting for his life after shot in kidney
-          ?Islamic state of Iraq? militant group claims responsibility
-          Militants demanded release of Al-Qaeda members in Egypt and Iraq
-          Witnesses and hostages describe scene inside of church as a ?battlefield?

Two priests and seven Iraqi troops are among more than 50 people killed in Iraq?s first bloodiest church siege.

Explosions and gunfire rung into the night as more than 100 Iraqi and US special troops stormed the Our Lady of Deliverance Assyrian Syriac Catholic Church in Baghdad.

Four hours earlier more than 10 Al-Qaeda linked militants stormed the church after detonating bombs outside the building.  The gunmen also engaged in a fire fight with security guards at the nearby Iraqi stock exchange.

Witnesses say the militants shot dead the priest as soon as entering the church. Assyrian parishioners were then huddled into a prayer hall and beaten. A dozen people had also been shot dead.

Local residents said, two priests had been shot dead at point blank range while a third is fighting for his life after being shot in his kidney.

Pascal Warda, a member of the Assyrian community told German media that he death toll will rise because many of the released hostages had life threatening injuries.

Questions are being asked about the rescue mission

The militants also detonated suicide vests as soon as security forces stormed the building. It?s believed that many people also died during the rescue mission which many are now questioning.

Worldwide media has also reported that authorities failed to negotiate with the militants to bring about a peaceful end.

http://theassyrian.com.au/news/global/death-toll-rises-after-church-massacre
 
chaldean said:
God bless them.  

Don't worry, Zowaa will come out with this statement soon.
Click to expand...

oh wow Noor long time no see i wish we would have seen you earlier on a more positive thread
hhmmm i dont know maybe the thread about how zowaa has organised the development of a uni?
not sure if you saw this part of the article

"Younadam Kana, a Christian MP, said parishioners who had called him from inside the church estimated that the gunmen had held some 100 people hostage."

They didn?t call your buddy Sargis but a man who they trust in a desperate time of need.
 
52 are dead and you are thanking god they are ok!!!

You remind me of what Iraqi defence minister said after the botched so called ?hostage rescue?

"So the operation was successfully done. All terrorists were killed. And we now have other suspects in detention," Mr Abdul-Qadr al-Obeidi said.

Mr Al Obeidi thanks!!! Your forces managed to not rescue 58 out of 100 hostages and you call it ? Successfully Done?. Where they teach that? what was going on in these 4 hours? 

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Here is the latest guys, and it is not pretty at all!

BAGHDAD ? Iraqi security forces stormed a Baghdad church where militants had taken an entire congregation hostage for four hours, leaving at least 52 people dead, including a priest, Iraqi officials said Monday.

It was not immediately clear whether the hostages died at the hands of the attackers or during the rescue late on Sunday night in an affluent neighborhood of the capital.

The incident began when militants wearing suicide vests and armed with grenades attacked the Iraqi stock exchange at dusk Sunday before turning their attention to the nearby Our Lady of Deliverance church ? one of Baghdad's main Catholic places of worship ? taking about 120 Christians hostage.

Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal, the deputy interior minister, said 52 people were killed and 67 wounded, in the bloodbath. Officials said at least one priest and 10 policemen were among the dead. Many of the wounded were women.

A Christian member of parliament on Monday described the Iraqi rescue operation as "not professional," saying "it was a hasty action that prompted the terrorists to kill the worshippers."

"We have no clear picture yet whether the worshippers were killed by the security forces bullets or by terrorists, but what we know is that most of them were killed when the security forces started to storm the church," Younadem Kana said.

Video footage from an American drone that was overhead during the attack showed a black plume of smoke followed by flashes from inside the building before what appears to be soldiers going in. U.S. forces often supply air support to Iraqi forces conducting operations on the ground, feeding them video footage of what American drones see from the air.

The casualty information was confirmed by police and officials at hospitals where the dead and wounded were taken.

There were conflicting accounts about the number of attackers involved in the assault, with Baghdad military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi saying Sunday night that security forces killed eight, while the U.S. military said between five and seven died.

Two police officers on the scene, however, say only three attackers were killed and another seven arrested afterward.

Outside the Syrian Catholic church Monday morning, Raed Hadi leaned against his car on top of which rested a casket holding the body of his cousin, who was killed in the siege. Hadi was waiting for the police to let him onto the church grounds to bury his relative. He railed against Iraqi authorities.

"It was a massacre in there and now they are cleaning it up," said Raed. "We Christians don't have enough protection. ... What shall I do now? Leave and ask for asylum?"

Police pushed back onlookers from around the church by erecting a barbed wire fence but residents and people from the Christian community claimed that it was too little, too late.

A cryptically worded statement posted late Sunday on a militant website allegedly by the Islamic State of Iraq appeared to claim responsibility for the attack. The group, which is linked to al-Qaida in Iraq, said it would "exterminate Iraqi Christians" if Muslim women in Egypt were not freed.

It specifically mentioned two women in Egypt that extremists maintain have converted to Islam and are being held against their will in Egypt. The two are wives of priests and are believed to have converted to Islam to leave their husbands since divorce is banned by Egypt's Coptic Church. One woman disappeared in 2004 and another in July.

Egypt's Christians had maintained they were kidnapped and staged rallies for their release. Both were later recovered by police, denied any conversions and were then spirited away to distant monasteries.

In the message, the militants claim the two are still Muslim and called upon the Vatican, which held a meeting earlier in October to discuss the fate of Christians in the Middle East, to release the women.

"We direct our speech to the Vatican and say that as you met with Christians of the Mideast a few days ago to support them and back them, now you have to pressure them to release our sisters, otherwise death will reach you all," the message said.

Iraqi Christians, who have been frequent targets for Sunni insurgents, have left in droves since the 2003 U.S.-led war. Catholics used to represent 2.89 percent of the population in 1980; by 2008 they were just 0.89 percent.

One Iraqi man who identified himself only as Abu Sami for security reasons, said his wife was inside the church during the attack. Although she was unharmed, he said he feared that the church siege signaled a new round of violence by militants against Iraq's Christian community.

"I expect the coming attacks will be worse in the future since the government is doing nothing to protect us. We are peaceful people and never harmed any of our fellow countrymen, so we do not understand the reasons behind such evil attacks," he said.

"Many Christians now believe that they do not have any hope in Iraq and the best thing to survive is to seek another country to live in," he said.
 
Not that there was ever any logic or wisdom to the way they do things, but with this latest massacre, these bloody extremists have reached a new low.

Can you imagine their reason for doing this? they are killing Christians in Iraq, because another country, Egypt, has some problems between Muslims and Christians? what is next, kill more Christians if Muslims in India are not allowed to build their temple wherever they desire?

And these two Coptic women they talk about, were actually forcefully taken away from their husbands, and never converted or anything. B.S . But try talking to these idiots who have no logic to anything they do in life...


The question is, where do we go from here?

ASHOOR
 
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