Iraqi security forces launched a failed rescue attempt this afternoon, attempting to put an end to the impromptu hostage situation at a Baghdad church. The raid left over 40 of the hostages dead and scores of others wounded, some seriously. The final toll of everyone in the incident, including security forces, was 58 dead and 75 wounded, according to the Interior Ministry.
The hostage takers were in the process of fleeing from an attempted attack on the Baghdad Stock Exchange when they fled into the church, taking the congregation hostage. The group was said to have demanded the release of a number of prisons in Iraq and Egypt, though the hostage situation only lasted a few hours before the troops stormed in. Officials concede that it is likely that the “rescuers” bullets killed a large number of the hostages, though publicly they still insist that they can’t make any formal judgment without an investigation.
Though reporters on the ground spotted a number of US military units taking positions around the church, the US denied any direct involvement in the botched rescue attempt, with officials insisting the US role began and ended with a surveillance drone overhead.
At least ten security forces were reported killed in the raid, and 15 others wounded. All eight people were reported arrested, though other reports insisted that some of the hostage-takers were slain during the attack.
Too bad..These mishaps could never have happened during Saddam's reign.
If we have to defend ourselves by pointing out Saddam could have done worse.. not sure it's much of a defence..
The sad part is that the best defense available.
Since when is Saddam the standard for anything? Besides, for much of "Saddam's reign", the U.S. government supported him.
Wait…Baghdad has a Stock Exchange? Everyone doesn't have water or electricity, but they have a stock exchange there?
Alan Greenspan about the Iraq War: "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,"
David Goldstein, Professor of Physics at Caltech: "Anyone who doesn't believe the Iraq War was about oil is living on a different planet."
Karl Rove about the Iraq War: "I wish it had never happened."
General William Odom (former NSA director) about the Iraq War: "[It's] the greatest foreign policy disaster in American History."
That was not a hostage situation. Those terrorists went in there to kill, kill and Kill. I have a family there. When the priest heard some gun shots in the distance, he took as many people as he could into a side room and hid them there, the rest stayed outside. They said that As soon as the terrorists came into the church they killed the priest, and then they started shooting people, and throwing their grenades at them, They killed men, women , children and infants, and they did that slowly. They killed the mother of a 6 year old child. When the daughter watched her mom die she cried, they asked her to shut up but she did not, they said she was annoying them and they shot her dead. for four hours, the government did nothing, they just let the terrorist plant horror, torture and slowly kill every person there. They killed a 4 month old baby. They made the men line up, and they shot them one a time, not all of them, they enjoyed watching the horror and pain on the faces of all people there. a 5 year old child told his story: his father embraced him, and the terrorists threw a grenade at them, the kid was covered with his father's blood, but he survived and lived to tell. 4 hours later, the government decided to move and break in, that was when the terrorists decided to blow themselves up, to finish their job. a few might have died with the gun shot of the iraqi poloce, but most of them died on the hand of the terrorists. The survivors lived to tell. The media never gets it right!
By the way, there were concrete obstacles and a check point to check every person. That was removed a couple of days before the attack. The latest thing i have been told is that ONLY 20 people out of 150 survived. a witness says that when the terrorists walked in, the priest asked them to pray together, each according to their religion, the suicidal blew himself up with the priest. then another one blew himself up with a pregnant woman. The media is not showing how horrible what happened in there was. Worse than the worst nightmare/ horror movie anyone could have