A quick summary (from initial reports), a number of Jihadists attacked a checkpoint near an Iraq financial center and church in Baghdad. The reports say the attackers initially sought to rob the financial building but were repelled after killing two guards at a checkpoint.
The mujaheddin (holy warriors) then fled (some reports say nine, initial reports said only four attackers) to the nearby church where services were being conducted and took hostages there - one of the nine attackers detonated his suicide vest when Iraqi commandos initially tried to storm the building. Eventually, after a several hour long standoff, the Iraqis stormed the church and a number of the hostages and commandos died.
According to survivors, the gunmen immediately executed the priest conducting the mass.
The current story is that 100 hostages were taken and at least 25 were killed. It's unknown how many hostages were killed before the authorities stormed the building or how they were killed - it seems likely a few hostages had their throats slit and were mutilated like in the Mumbai hostage/massacre two years ago, but we'll see if they were simply shot or died as the attackers detonated their explosive vests.
Also, the holy warriors were demanding the release of other holy warriors in custody in Egypt and elsewhere.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middl ... 82931.html
It also looks like the killings may have been a result of a recent al-Jazeera report claiming that Egypt's Coptic population were stockpiling Israeli arms in their churches and were kidnapping Muslim women and converting them to Christianity:
The group alleged that female Muslims were being held against their will in Coptic Christian monasteries in Egypt.
Seems like al-Jazeera bears some responsibility for this attack seeing how their ridiculous story was used to justify this massacre. No doubt, Muslims throughout the Arab world see this attack as some sort of 'payback' to Egypt's Christian population.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middl ... 82931.html
Here's a little background on the story of Coptics stockpiling weapons, etc:
Consider: on September 15, prominent Egyptian Muhammad Salim al-Awwa, ex-secretary general of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, appeared on Al Jazeera and, in a wild tirade, accused the Copts of "stocking arms and ammunitions in their churches and monasteries"— imported from Israel, no less, since "Israel is in the heart of the Coptic Cause" — and "preparing to wage war against Muslims."
He warned that if nothing is done, the "country will burn," urging Muslims to "counteract the strength of the [Coptic] Church." Al-Awwa further charged that Egypt's security forces cannot enter the monasteries to investigate for weapons — an amazing assertion, considering that Coptic monasteries are not only at the mercy of the state, but easy prey to Islamist/Bedouin attacks.
Due to all these allegations, since last month, there have been at least ten mass demonstrations in Egypt — most numbering in the thousands — condemning the Copts, the Coptic Church, and Pope Shenouda. The "Front of Islamic Egypt" issued a statement promising the Copts a "blood bath." Most recently, on October 8, Muslim demonstrators chanted "Shenouda, just wait, we will dig your grave with our own hands," while burning the 86 year-old pope's effigy.
They got their blood bath.
http://www.raymondibrahim.com/8081/copt ... on-mubarak
