Islam lagi...
Islam lagi...
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Middle East
Hostages die in Iraq church raid
Al-Qaeda-linked group claims responsibility for attack on Baghdad church that
resulted in deaths of 58 people.
Last Modified: 01 Nov 2010 14:52 GMT
An al-Qaeda-linked group has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Catholic
church in the Iraqi capital, which resulted in the deaths of 58 people.
The Reuters news agency reported the death toll on Monday, a day after
attackers stormed the Our Lady of Salvation church in the Karrada neighbourhood
of central Baghdad.
The assailants took more than 100 people hostage in a standoff that ended after
police stormed the church two hours later. At least 25 of those killed were
hostages.
"Right from the very beginning their phone calls were fully intercepted and we
strongly believe there were non-Iraqi people among the group. We will
investigate their nationalities," Abdul Qader al-Obeidi, the Iraqi defence
minister, said.
The kidnappers were demanding the release of al-Qaeda prisoners from Iraqi and
Egyptian jails, Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh reported from Baghdad.
Al-Qaeda affiliate
Al-Baghdadiya television station said it had received a phone call from someone
claiming to be one of the attackers, who demanded the release of all al-Qaeda
prisoners in Iraq and Egypt.
That person spoke classical Arabic, "perhaps an attempt to conceal his
identity," Rageh said.
The Islamic State of Iraq, a group which is linked to al-Qaeda, later claimed
responsibility for the attack in a statement posted online after the incident.
The group alleged that female Muslims were being held against their will in
Coptic Christian monasteries in Egypt.
"[There is] some sort of Egyptian involvement there, but authorities are not
confirming that," our correspondent reported.
Major-General Qassim al-Moussawi, a Baghdad security spokesman, told the
Reuters news agency on Sunday that the operation "has finished successfully".
Sunday's attack began with at least one loud explosion followed by bursts of
gunfire. Streets around the church were quickly cordoned off.
Earlier the assailants, wearing suicide vests, killed two guards who tried to
stop them from raiding the stock exchange building.
After battling security forces at the stock exchange, the men fled to the
nearby church, where they held the building's construction and cleaning crew
hostage inside.
Abdullah Hermiz, the head of Christian Endowment, a state body that oversees
Iraq's chruches, told the Associated Press news agency that only part of the
building was under construction and that Sunday services were being held as
usual in another part of the church.
"When they were about to leave and heard the shooting outside and because of
the scary situation, some ran outside the church while others remained inside,"
he said.
Our correspondent said that according to the US military the attackers were
al-Qaeda operatives, based on their "tactics, techniques and procedures".
Pope's condemnation
Pope Benedict condemned on Monday the attack in remarks to pilgrims gathered to
hear his prayer in St Peter's Square for the Catholic All Saints' Day holiday.
"I pray for the victims of this senseless violence, made even more ferocious
because it struck defenceless people who were gathered in the house of God,
which is a house of love and reconciliation," he said.
Lieutenant-Colonel Eric Bloom, a US army spokesman, said about 100 people had
been in the church when the attackers came in, but some 19 of them managed to
escape.
"They [Iraqi forces] went into the church and rescued the hostages," Bloom
said. "They have control of the church".
He said US forces provided air support but did not have soldiers on the ground
going into the church. Iraqi Special Forces stormed the church around 9pm.
Bloom later told Al Jazeera that the incident was a "robbery gone wrong".
"We've seen them resort to robbery to get financed. It has been very
challenging for them to get outside financing, so they are resorting to small,
petty crimes to try to finance themselves".
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
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