1. Malaysian Insider (http://www.themalaysianinsider.com)
At least 7 hostages killed in rescue from Iraq church, 01 November 2010
BAGHDAD, Nov 1 — At least seven Iraqi Catholics died yesterday when police stormed a Baghdad church where gunmen were holding dozens of parishioners hostage, threatening to kill them if al Qaeda prisoners were not released.
The US military said between seven and 10 hostages and seven members of the Iraqi security forces, as well as five to seven attackers, were killed in the rescue operation.
Witnesses reported seeing many bodies inside the church after the gunmen wearing suicide vests threw grenades or blew themselves up as Iraqi forces stormed the building.
The insurgents laid siege to one of Baghdad’s biggest churches as more than 100 parishioners attended Sunday mass in a central district near the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to embassies and the Iraqi government.
US military officials watched the rescue operation from cameras in hovering helicopters.
Lieutenant-Colonel Eric Bloom, a US military spokesman in Baghdad, said three militants detonated suicide vests as Iraq forces entered the church. He said a total of 120 hostages were held by the assailants, adding that 30 people were wounded.
Colonel Kadhim Basheer Saleh, an Iraqi civil defence spokesman, said 15 civilians, four policemen and eight attackers were killed.
Al Qaeda’s Iraqi affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack on “the dirty place of the infidel which Iraqi Christians have long used as a base to fight Islam.”
It said in a statement posted on radical Islamic websites that it was an action against the Christian church in Egypt.
Violence has fallen sharply in Iraq since the height of sectarian bloodshed in 2006-07 but attacks by Sunni insurgents linked to al Qaeda and Shi’ite militia continue daily.
The failure of Iraqi leaders to agree on a new government almost eight months after an inconclusive election has stoked tensions just as US forces cut back their presence and end combat operations ahead of a full withdrawal next year.
Iraqi security officials said they had been warned of possible attacks against large gatherings, especially churches.
“We expect attacks will continue and increase in the coming days,” said Lieutenant-General Hussein Kamal, Iraq’s deputy interior minister.
As yesterday’s operation unfolded, military helicopters flew low overhead and gunfire rang out through the densely populated residential area. Streets around the Assyrian Catholic church were quickly cordoned off.
A Christian woman who was held hostage in the Our Lady of Salvation Church told Reuters there were many bodies inside.
“While I was trying to find my way out, in the dark, I walked over bodies,” she said, asking not to be identified. “There are many bodies there.”
A federal police source said the attackers demanded the release of al Qaeda prisoners, including the widow of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the former head of the Islamic State of Iraq, who was killed in April.
In a separate call to al-Baghdadiya television station, a man who claimed to be one of the attackers said the group also wanted al Qaeda prisoners released in Egypt.
Some police sources said they believed the initial target was the nearby Iraqi stock exchange, a bourse that lists a couple dozen local companies.
Our Lady of Salvation, one of Baghdad’s largest churches, was one of five churches in Baghdad and Mosul hit in co-ordinated attacks in August 2004 in which 12 people were killed.
Christians number about a 1.5 million out of a total Iraqi population of about 23 million, the vast majority of them Muslims. Christian denominations include Chaldeans, Copts, Roman and Melkite Catholics, Maronites and Greek Orthodox. — Reuters
2. WorldWide Religious News (http://wwrn.org)
Al Qaeda ally in Iraq says all Christians 'legitimate targets'
by Taylor Barnes ("Christian Science Monitor," November 3, 2010)
Baghdad, Iraq - The Islamic State of Iraq, an insurgent group and Al Qaeda ally, on Tuesday declared all the country's Christians "legitimate targets."
The group says it believes that Muslim women are being held against their will in Coptic churches in Egypt. The Egyptian state, the Coptic church, and Egypt's leading Islamist movement the Muslim Brotherhood have all condemned the threats of violence against Christians.
The threat came while Iraq was still reeling from a series of car bombs across the capital Tuesday that killed at least 113 people in Shiite neighborhoods. The attacks bore the hallmarks of Sunni Arab militants like the Islamic State of Iraq. Tuesday's massacre appeared designed to fuel sectarian violence against Shiites.
That followed Sunday's targeting of Christians, when the Islamic State of Iraq seized a Catholic church in Baghdad and killed 58 people during a standoff with police. It was said to be the deadliest attack against Christians ever recorded in Iraq.
“All Christian centers, organizations and institutions, leaders and followers, are legitimate targets for the mujahideen [holy warriors]," the Islamic State of Iraq said in a statement posted online late Tuesday.
Sunni militant chatrooms have been inflamed in recent weeks with claims that the Egyptian Coptic church is forcibly holding two women, wives of Coptic priests, who converted to Islam. “Let these idolaters, and at their forefront, the hallucinating tyrant of the Vatican, know that the killing sword will not be lifted from the necks of their followers until they declare their innocence from what the dog of the Egyptian Church is doing," the message continued.
The Coptic church is the Egyptian branch of the Eastern Orthodox right and as many as 10 percent of Egyptian's claim the faith.
One of the women, Camilia Shehata, went missing for a few days in July. After police escorted her home, Islamist protesters said she was being forcibly detained after converting to Islam. The other woman, Wafa Constantine, was held at a convent after her husband refused to grant her a divorce and rumors that she had converted circulated, reported Agence France-Presse.
After Sunday, Iraqi church leaders blamed the Iraqi government for failing to prevent the deadliest attack since before Iraq’s March election, reported The Christian Science Monitor. “If the sons of this country cannot live in peace then the situation is clearly unacceptable. Had we been provided with adequate security, this would not have happened,” Syriac church official Monsignor Pius Kasha told the Monitor.
Tuesday's attacks in Shiite neighborhoods, however, were far deadlier, with at least 17 car bombs detonated mostly over a period of 90 minutes, reported The Los Angeles Times. The attacks bore the signature of Al Qaeda in Iraq and underscored the fragility of the country, reported the Times:
The mayhem underscored the extent to which violence continues to define Iraq, even as American troops depart and memories of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion retreat from American consciousness. Each deadly incident, whether a fatal shooting or a major explosion, fuels foreboding that Iraq could once more fall apart as the nation seeks to function without a new government eight months after national elections.
Christians were also targeted ahead of the March elections. The Monitor's Jane Arraf visited the city of Erbil in northern Iraq to speak with the family of Adnan Hannah al-Dahan, who was the first of at least eight Iraqi Christians killed in the weeks leading up to the vote.
The murders have led to an exodus of one of the troubled city’s oldest minorities and fears that the attacks will keep Christians from voting in the Iraq election, scheduled for next week.
Iraq's Christian community is one of the world's oldest. But since the 2003 invasion, church bombings, kidnappings, and assassinations have scattered the community. Last year, Human Rights Watch estimated that two-thirds of Iraqi Christians have fled their homes since the war began.
In a recent background briefing, the Monitor found that the search for better opportunities abroad, a Christian's status as a target of Iraq's sectarian conflict, a low birth rate, and discrimination were all fueling the decline of Christians in the Middle East.
・Disclaimer: WWRN does not endorse or adhere to views or opinions expressed in the articles posted. This is purely an information site, to inform interested parties of religious trends.
(End)
