ACN News - Three priests killed in attack on Baghdad Church

ACN-USA News

11/02/10

Three priests killed in attack on Baghdad Church


Three priests are among over 50 Catholics who were killed during an attack on a Church in central Baghdad.

According to Church sources in Iraq, three young priests were killed as a result of the attack on Our Lady of Salvation Syrian Catholic Church by terrorists during Mass Sunday evening, October 31, 2010.

The three priests, who were leading the service, were taken hostage along with many of the parishioners.

Fr. Wasim Sabieh and Fr. Thaier Saad Abdal were killed during the attack. The third priest, Father Qatin, was wounded and died later in hospital.

Vatican Radio reported that over 50 people were killed and 70 to 80 wounded in the attack, including seven members of the Iraqi security forces.

The church was attacked by nine armed men who had suicide bombs attached to their belts. They took hostages, who were eventually freed after Iraqi security forces stormed the church.

The security forces killed eight of the terrorists during the operation to free the church, and a ninth died when he activated a suicide bomb.

The terrorists claimed to belong to Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni militant group closely allied with Al-Qaeda. They were demanding the release of Al-Qaeda members being held in Iraq and Egypt.

A statement on the group’s website also demanded the release of Muslim girls from Christian backgrounds who they claimed are being held prisoner in Egyptian Coptic monasteries.

The statement gave 48 hours to release the girls before they blew up the church.

Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has prioritized help for the Middle East since Pope Benedict XVI asked the charity to do more to sustain Christianity in the region – saying “Churches in the Middle East are threatened in their very existence.”

As well as helping Christian refugees in the north of Iraq and Syria, ACN is providing aid for those fleeing to Turkey and Jordan.

Last year ACN provided more than $730,000 in aid for persecuted Christians in Iraq.



Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.  ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information contact Michael Varenne at michael@churchinneed.org or call 718-609-0939 or fax718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384. www.churchinneed.org