{"id":482,"date":"2010-11-04T05:27:11","date_gmt":"2010-11-03T22:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/martianuswb.com\/?p=482"},"modified":"2013-03-12T22:05:35","modified_gmt":"2013-03-12T15:05:35","slug":"iraqis-mourn-victims-of-massive-attack-on-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martianuswb.com\/?p=482","title":{"rendered":"Iraqis mourn victims of massive attack on church"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>ISTANBUL, November 2<\/strong> (CDN) \u2014 Amid questions about lax security, mourners gathered in Iraq today to bury the victims of Sunday\u2019s (Oct. 31) Islamic extremist assault on a Syrian Catholic Church in Baghdad, one of the bloodiest attacks on the country\u2019s dwindling Christian community.<\/p>\n

Seven or eight Islamic militants stormed into Our Lady of Salvation church during evening mass after detonating bombs in the neighborhood, gunning down two policemen at the stock exchange across the street, and blowing up their own car, according to The Associated Press (AP). More than 100 people were reportedly attending mass.<\/p>\n

A militant organization called the Islamic State of Iraq, which has links to al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, claimed responsibility for the attack. The militants sprayed the sanctuary with bullets and ordered a priest to call the Vatican to demand the release of Muslim women whom they claimed were held hostage by the Coptic Church in Egypt, according to the AP. The militants also reportedly demanded the release of al Qaeda prisoners.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears to be a well-planned and strategic attack aiming at the church,\u201d said a local source for ministry organization Open Doors.<\/p>\n

About four hours after the siege, Iraqi security forces launched an assault on the church building, and the Islamic assailants blew themselves up. It was unclear how many of the 58 people dead had been killed by Iraqi security personnel, but the militants reportedly began killing hostages when the security force assault began. All who did not die from gunshots and blasts were wounded.<\/p>\n

The dead included 12 policemen, three priests and five bystanders from the car bombing and other blasts outside the church. The Open Doors source reported that the priests killed were the Rev. Saad Abdal Tha\u2019ir, the Rev. Waseem Tabeeh and the Rev. Raphael Qatin, with the latter not succumbing until he had been taken to a hospital.<\/p>\n

Bishop Georges Casmoussa told Compass that today Iraqi Christians not only mourned lost brothers and sisters but were tempted to lose hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a personal loss and a Christian loss,\u201d said Casmoussa. \u201cIt\u2019s not just people they kill. They also kill hope. We want to look at the future. They want to kill the Christian presence here, where we have so much history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casmoussa, who knew the priests who died, said that this attack will surely drive more Christians away from the country or to Kurdish administrated northern Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who are wounded know that it is by the grace of God they are alive, but some of them don\u2019t know exactly what happened,\u201d said Casmoussa. \u201cThere is one hurt man who doesn\u2019t know if his son is still alive. This is the drama. There are families that lost two and three members. Do I have the right to tell them to not leave?\u201d<\/p>\n

The attack was the deadliest one against the country\u2019s Christians since Islamic extremists began targeting them in 2003.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the hardest hit against the Christians in Iraq,\u201d said Casmoussa, noting that no single act of violence had led to more casualties among Christians. \u201cWe never had such an attack against a church or Christian community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Memorials were held today in Baghdad, Mosul and surrounding towns, said Casmoussa, who attended the funeral of 13 deceased Christians including the dead priests.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the funeral there was the Shiite leader, the official spokesperson of the government ministers,\u201d Casmoussa said. \u201cAll the discussion was flippant \u2013 \u2018We are with you, we are all suffering,\u2019 etcetera, but we have demanded a serious investigation. We can\u2019t count on good words anymore. It\u2019s all air. We\u2019ve heard enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rev. Emanuel Youkhana of the Church of the East told Compass that Iraqi Christians have been systematically driven out over the last five years. He said this attack came as no surprise to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not surprised, in that this is not the first time,\u201d said Youkhana. \u201cIn the last five years, there has been a systematic terrorist campaign to kick out the Christians from the country. [They are saying] you are not accepted in this country. Christians should leave this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Youkhana said that in the same way that the Jewish community has disappeared from Iraq, the Iraqi Christians, or Medians as they are called, \u201care in their last stage of existence\u201d in Iraq.<\/p>\n

The Iraqi government is to blame due to its lax security measures, Youkhana said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m ashamed of the minister of defense, who came on TV and said it was a successful and professional operation \u2013 50 percent of the [congregation] was massacred,\u201d said Youkhana of the assault on the Islamic terrorists by Iraqi security forces.<\/p>\n

He said that in order for Christians to have any hope of staying in Iraq, the government must come up with a political solution and set up an independent administrative area, like that of the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust now I was watching on TV the coverage of the funeral,\u201d Youkhana said. \u201cAll the politicians are there to condemn the act. So what? Is the condemnation enough to give confidence to the people? No!\u201d<\/p>\n

It is estimated that more than 50 percent of Iraq\u2019s Christian community has fled the country since 2003. There are nearly 600,000 Christians left in Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore people will leave, and this is the intention of the terrorists: to claim Iraq as a pure Islamic state,\u201d said Youkhana. \u201cOur people are so peaceful and weak; they cannot confront the terrorists. So they are fleeing out of the country and to the north. This is why we say there should be political recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five suspects were arrested in connection with the attack \u2013 some of them were not Iraqi, and today an Iraqi police commander was detained for questioning in connection to the attack, according to the AP.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t make political demands,\u201d said Casmoussa. \u201cWe are making a civic and humanitarian demand: That we can live in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the funerals today, a series of at least 13 bombings and mortar strikes in predominantly Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad reportedly killed 76 people and wounded nearly 200.<\/p>\n

\n

http:\/\/www.compassdirect.org\/\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISTANBUL, November 2 (CDN) \u2014 Amid questions about lax security, mourners gathered in Iraq today to bury the victims of Sunday\u2019s (Oct. 31) Islamic extremist assault on a Syrian Catholic… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[35,69],"class_list":["post-482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-persecuted","tag-idop-2010","tag-iraq"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=482"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2586,"href":"https:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions\/2586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}