BAGHDAD (AP) - The death toll from the bloody siege of a Baghdad church rose Monday to 39 dead with dozens more injured, Iraqi officials said.
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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.
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Officials said at least one priest and nine policemen were among the dead. Many of the wounded were women. A cryptically worded statement posted late Sunday on a militant website allegedly by the Islamic State of Iraq appeared to claim responsibility for the attack. The group, which is linked to al-Qaida in Iraq, said it would "exterminate Iraqi Christians" if Muslim women are not freed within 48 hours from churches in Egypt. - Source
File photo: Assyrian Catholic, OL of Salvation church, Bagdad
Tragic, horrid, absurd, demonic.
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How beautiful to die for Jesus and His Church.
This is "lot" of us who believe in Jesus; whether it happens at the hand of hateful gunmen, the horrors of a totalitian governmnet, the wiles of the demons, the persecution from "our own".
As frightening and horrible as this is (to me...to others); if I'm killed at the altar as this priest was, along with many others,
it is because I have been faithful, a grace for which I pray daily.
Thanks, Mr. Terry.
This is so true Father; thanks Terry for posting this, since the media is ignoring this as usual. (Christians in Irag are like magnets for satanic moslems ...having killed at least one bishop along with so many priests/faithful).
ReplyDeleteThis is true martyrdom; not the absurd use of the word when it is used by moslems who murder the innocent with guns in their hands or bombs attached to their bodies and them call 'themselves' martyrs.
This is 'apocalyptic' news.
The beast/false prophet/ and blood-thirsty whore of babylon today.
One irony of the US's actions in Iraq is that yes, there is no more secular fascist Saddam regime, but the government that does exist is an explicitly Islamic one, with a constitution that incorporates Shari'a.
ReplyDeleteSo we now have a situation in which Iraqi Christians (and Jews) are having a WORSE time than they did under Saddam.
This will happen in Egypt as well, but on a much grander scale, if the tyrant Mubarak dies or is deposed.
Hang on to your seat belts, folks -- I'm afraid this is only the beginning. Pray, pray, pray!!!
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