On 31 Oct 10, FOX News posted an Associated Press article which reported that approximately 120 Iraqi Christians were attacked and held hostage for nearly four hours in a Baghdad church. According to the report, militants, allegedly linked to Al Qaeda, were responsible for the attack which resulted in at least 19 dead and as many 30 wounded.
The report related that the incident began as police responded to an attack on the nearby Iraqi Stock Exchange building. As the police gave chase, the militants were driven towards the Our Lady of Deliverance Catholic church. The report quoted parishioner Marzina Matti Yalda who related that the gunman burst in on a Bible reading of the mass. “As we went outside the hall to see what was happening, gunmen stormed the main gate and they started to shoot at us," Yalda said. "Many people fell down, including a priest, while some of us ran inside and took shelter in a locked room. We were packed together as we waited for the security forces to arrive.”
According to a 1 Nov 10 report by BBC News, “Security forces later surrounded the church and sealed off the area, with helicopters hovering overhead.” The report also related “The local TV station, al-Baghdadiya, said it had received a phone call from someone claiming to be one of the attackers, who said they were from the Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni militant umbrella group to which al-Qaeda in Iraq belongs.” The article continued, “Reports said the attackers were not Iraqis, but foreign Arabs.”
The BBC News report related that “There were no negotiations with the gunmen before the security forces stormed the church.” According to a 31 Oct 10 CNN report, Iraqi Security Forces stormed the Catholic Church to end the standoff which had lasted for several hours.
The CNN report quoted Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul Qader Obeidi, who related that most of the hostages were killed or wounded when the kidnappers set off explosives inside the church.
According to the FOX News report, “Iraqi Christians, who have been frequent targets for Sunni insurgents, have left in droves since the 2003 U.S.-led war. Some 1.25 million Christians, 80 percent of them Catholic, used to live in Iraq. There are an estimated 870,000 left today.”
Cited Articles and Posts
FOX News (31 Oct 10)
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/10/31/hostages-freed-iraqi-church/?test=latestnews
BBC News (1 Nov 10)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11463544
CNN (31 Oct 10)
