Death Toll From Iraq Church Standoff Rises

[alienlovechild 75]

BAGHDAD — A day after Iraqi forces stormed a church in Baghdad where gunmen had taken close to 100 hostages, Interior Ministry officials said on Monday that at least 58 people, including two priests, had been killed and 75 wounded in an afternoon of chaos that became a bloodbath. The death toll was considerably higher than initially reported.

Abdul-Kader Jassem al-Obeidi, the defense minister, said that most of the hostages were killed or wounded when the kidnappers set off at least two suicide vests as they took over the church. He defended the decision to storm the building, saying, “ This was a successful operation with a minimum of casualties, and killing all the terrorists.”

A source at the Interior Ministry said that the police had arrested eight gunmen believed to be affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq, a militant organization connected to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

In a statement posted on a Web site operated by militants late on Sunday, the Islamic State of Iraq took responsibility for the attack, calling the church “ the dirty den of idolatry.” The posting said its actions had been prompted in part by the behavior of the Coptic Church in Egypt, which it accused of detaining two women who converted to Islam. It added that the fuse of a campaign against Iraqi Christians had been lit.

Hussain Nahidh, a police officer who saw the interior of the church, said: “It’ s a horrible scene. More than 50 people were killed. The suicide vests were filled with ball bearings to kill as many people as possible.”

“ Many people went to the hospitals without legs and hands,” he said.

Many lamented that the killings might force more Christians to leave Iraq, further shrinking an already dwindling community.

“ There’ s no future for us here,” said Stephen Karomi, a 24-year-old Christian from the northern town of Karakosh. “Everything is really foggy.”

An American official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said security forces decided to storm the church after they believed that the assailants had begun killing hostages.

Had they not entered, he said, the toll would have been worse. “Our information was the hostage takers had begun to systematically execute hostages,” he said.

The violence began shortly after 5 p.m. on Sunday. The gunmen first attacked the Baghdad stock exchange in the Karada neighborhood, killing two security guards and wounding four others, setting off two bombs and then taking refuge in the nearby Sayidat al-Nejat church. It was unclear whether the attackers’ main target was the stock market or the church, or whether they planned to attack both.

The church — one of six bombed in August 2004 — was filled for Sunday services. A local television channel, Baghdadiya, reported receiving a telephone call from someone claiming to be one of the attackers and demanding the release of all members of Al Qaeda imprisoned in Arab countries.

Major acts of violence have not proliferated during the political deadlock, as many have feared, but smaller, focused attacks have been commonplace, stirring fears of a return to high levels of bloodshed.

The church, with a huge cross visible from hundreds of yards away, was already surrounded with concrete bollards and razor wire, and church leaders have been fearful of attack since the Rev. Terry Jones in Gainesville, Fla., threatened to burn a Koran on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Mr. Jones decided not to burn the Koran.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/world/middleeast/02iraq.html

[웃 910]

Sad to see the Islamic religion claim so many lives each day in such a violent and horrific manner.

[Danno 1,228]

It never stops.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Sad to see the Islamic religion claim so many lives each day in such a violent and horrific manner.

Unless God Himself smote them, Islam didn't kill anyone. Religions don't kill people; people kill people.

[alienlovechild 75]

Unless God Himself smote them, Islam didn't kill anyone. Religions don't kill people; people kill people.

The Islamic State of Iraq group took responsibility for the attack not the Generic Butchers of Mesopotamia.

"Many lamented that the killings might force more Christians to leave Iraq, further shrinking an already dwindling community."

No kidding. Maybe they can build a new church there to build interfaith relationships? Bring your body armor to services.

[Danno 1,228]

The Islamic State of Iraq group took responsibility for the attack not the Generic Butchers of Mesopotamia.

"Many lamented that the killings might force more Christians to leave Iraq, further shrinking an already dwindling community."

No kidding. Maybe they can build a new church there to build interfaith relationships? Bring your body armor to services.

Hey I have an idea... why not build the "healing" Ground Zero Mosque over there where it's really really needed?

[Teacher Mark 53]

It never stops.

It never should have started.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Self-serving sarcasm aside, Islam killed no one in that church anymore than Christianity killed 4 little girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. Get over your fake outrage. You all just enjoy bitching and manufactured religious superiority.

[웃 910]

Self-serving sarcasm aside, Islam killed no one in that church anymore than Christianity killed 4 little girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. Get over your fake outrage. You all just enjoy bitching and manufactured religious superiority.

Bottom line is if you eliminated all Christians/Jews/Atheists then you might save <100 deaths a year from "attacks". Keep in mind that these "attacks" are not in the name of religion. I'm talking about a white dude that is insane and loses his job so kills a few of his coworkers and then himself. And we'll just assume that the attacker is one of the said religions. These attackers are psychopaths and, again, not committing their terrorist attacks in the name of religion.

Now on the other hand, if you eliminated all Muslims you would save 1000s upon 1000s of deaths a year. The problem with these attackers is they commit their terrorist acts in the name of Islam. That is the difference.

You would also save TENS OF BILLIONS of dollars in infrastructure damages as the extremist Muslim suicide bombers like to blow themselves up and destroy as much as possible.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Unless God Himself smote them, Islam didn't kill anyone. Religions don't kill people; people kill people.

I guess it depends on their religion.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Bottom line is if you eliminated all Christians/Jews/Atheists then you might save <100 deaths a year from "attacks". Keep in mind that these "attacks" are not in the name of religion. I'm talking about a white dude that is insane and loses his job so kills a few of his coworkers and then himself. And we'll just assume that the attacker is one of the said religions. These attackers are psychopaths and, again, not committing their terrorist attacks in the name of religion.

Now on the other hand, if you eliminated all Muslims you would save 1000s upon 1000s of deaths a year. The problem with these attackers is they commit their terrorist acts in the name of Islam. That is the difference.

You would also save TENS OF BILLIONS of dollars in infrastructure damages as the extremist Muslim suicide bombers like to blow themselves up and destroy as much as possible.

If Christians had been eliminated, we could have avoided the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, colonialism in Africa and Latin America, the Bloody Reformation, the IRA, slavery in the New World, the destruction of aboriginal communities and their forced conversion to Christianity in the name of Divine Providence, sterilization of undesirable minorities, the reservation system, the crude creation of Middle East boundaries and tribal infighting, the Ku Klux Klan, lynchings, Rosewood, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement, the Gay rights movement, Blue Laws, abortion bombings, feminism, eugenics, WWII, Wahabbism, the plunder of South American resources to fund the Renaissance, the Salam Witch hunt, and an abundance of other historical evils too long to continue here.

Edited November 2, 2010 by Sofiyya

[ready4ONE 5,400]

If Christians had been eliminated, we could have avoided the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, colonialism in Africa and Latin America, the Bloody Reformation, the IRA, slavery in the New World, the destruction of aboriginal communities and their forced conversion to Christianity in the name of Divine Providence, sterilization of undesirable minorities, the reservation system, the crude creation of Middle East boundaries and tribal infighting, the Ku Klux Klan, lynchings, Rosewood, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement, the Gay rights movement, Blue Laws, abortion bombings, feminism, eugenics, WWII, Wahabbism, the plunder of South American resources to fund the Renaissance, the Salam Witch hunt, and an abundance of other historical evils too long to continue here.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

You must have loathed your history classes, thus learned nothing from them.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

You must have loathed your history classes, thus learned nothing from them.

Yes only White Christian Bigots see a link between Islam and Terrorism...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkFmalrQ-IQ

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Yes only White Christian Bigots see a link between Islam and Terrorism...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkFmalrQ-IQ

That's not what's being said though, is it.

The post that initiated this made a unjustifiable sweeping statement that is both ignorant and factually wrong.