A prominent Baghdad church was attacked during mass Sunday evening, and assailants were holding parishioners hostage as Iraqi troops ringed the area.Before storming the Assyrian Catholic church, the gunmen, armed with grenades, handguns, and a car bomb, got into a gun battle with guards outside a branch of the Baghdad stock exchange. Two guards were killed in that confrontation.
As Iraqi soldiers moved in on the terrorists, they drove off in a vehicle rigged with explosives, parked it at the front entrance of Our Lady of Salvation Church, and detonated a car bomb outside. After the blast, the gunmen ran into the church.
"Their accent was not Iraqi," according to a witness. He said that they were demanding the release of al Qaeda inmates held in Iraq.
| Update: Hostages released; four terrorists, one hostage dead This source identifies the dead hostage as Yonadem Kana, an Iraqi Christian parliamentarian. |
| Update 2 (17:06 EDT): Seven hostages killed and 20 wounded |
| Update 3 (17:32 EDT): US military says up to 24 dead 7 Iraqi security troops, 5-7 terrorists, up to 10 hostages killed. 30 injured out of 120 in the church. |