Security forces storm Baghdad hostage church

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

Iraqi security forces, backed up by US troops, have stormed a Catholic church in central Baghdad and freed dozens of hostages being held by gunmen there.

There were widely conflicting reports about casualties, but security sources told the BBC that at least seven people had been killed and 20 others wounded.

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The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says there are different figures from different sources for the number of hostages and attackers involved, and how many of each were killed or captured.

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The US military said up to 10 hostages, seven members of the Iraqi security forces and seven gunmen were killed, according to the Reuters news agency.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11463544

[Taverner]

1. "Reports said the attackers were not Iraqis, but foreign Arabs."

Thanks Bush....

[dipsydoodle]

2. Link now updated to read : Baghdad church hostage drama ends in bloodbath

At least 37 people have been killed after Iraqi security forces stormed a Catholic church in central Baghdad to free dozens of hostages being held by gunmen there, security sources say.

Twenty-five hostages were among the dead, along with seven members of the Iraqi security forces and at least five of the attackers, they told the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11463544

[maddezmom]

3. Iraqi church siege killed 52, official says

BAGHDAD — Fifty-two hostages and police were killed on Sunday when security forces raided a Baghdad church to free more than 100 Iraqi Catholics held by al-Qaida-linked gunmen, a deputy interior minister said.

Lieutenant General Hussein Kamal said on Monday that 67 people were wounded during the raid of the church in central Baghdad by gunmen demanding the release of al Qaida prisoners in Iraq and Egypt.

The toll only included hostages and police, not attackers.

The standoff began at dusk Sunday when militants wearing suicide vests and armed with grenades attacked the nearby Iraqi stock exchange and then entered the nearby Our Lady of Deliverance church — one of Baghdad's main Catholic places of worship — taking about 120 Christians hostage.

more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39945190/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/