Iraq buries more victims of church attack

Nov 2, 2010, 17:58 GMT

Baghdad - Mourners gathered in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Tuesday to bury victims of the deadly hostage-taking of a church over the weekend in a second wave of funerals.

Among those being laid to rest were two priests and numerous congregants killed when Islamist militants took worshippers hostage at the end of Sunday services.

More than 250 people dressed in black accompanied the funeral procession through a central area of Baghdad, the dead carried in caskets wrapped in the tricolour Iraqi flag.

Some relatives held pictures of their deceased loved ones.

The attack at Our Lady of Salvation, an Assyrian Catholic temple in Baghdad, left at least 52 people dead and more than 75 injured.

A group affiliated with al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for what is increasingly being termed a 'bloodbath' by members of the Christian community.

Some were shot in the church at point-blank range, while others were blown up when militants detonated suicide vests. More were killed when Iraqi police raided the church in an effort to end the hostage situation.

Women, children and priests were among the first killed, witnesses said. Other survivors recounted harrowing tales of abuse during the hours-long standoff, as militants beat worshippers and herded them into small hallways.

Sunday's incident was the most significant targeting Christian sects since 2008, when persecution reached a peak in Mosul, an ancient city in northern Iraq.

It is estimated that about half of that city's Christians, who have inhabited the area since the dawn of the faith, fled during the wave of violence.

Iraq is believed to have lost more than 40 per cent of the 1 million Christians who lived in the country in 2003, many having immigrated abroad.

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