Baghdad, Nov. 1: 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.
Mr Abdul-Kader Jassem al-Obeidi, the defence 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 authorised 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.