Thanks to Blair Christ will soon be dead

Tony Blair was in Sonoma County, California, this week to open an “industrial winemaking facility” as part of his role as senior adviser to a Silicon Valley firm called Khosla Ventures. How does he find the time to bring peace to the Middle East and promote all these excellent ventures, such as that methanol plant in Azerbaijan he turned up in in one of his shiny suits.

Meanwhile Cherie Blair has been defending her half-sister’s conversion to Islam by arguing: “There are thousands of Muslims in Europe who participate in our way of life and intend continuing to do so and if they want to dress in a certain way because of their beliefs, we shouldn’t feel threatened.”

I agree, to an extent. But of course it’s not just in Europe where niqabs have become fashionable in the past 10 years. There’s this place her husband may have heard of called “Iraq”, where people have had every right to feel threatened by the veil.For thanks to Tony Blair and his well-intentioned but ill-thought-out war, Iraq’s indigenous Christian minority is, to put it bluntly, close to extinction.

Before the US-led invasion the country’s Christians, most of whom still speak Aramaic, numbered between 800,000 and one million; today fewer than 400,000 still live there, and following Sunday’s massacre at a Catholic Church, where 58 people lost their lives following attack by Sunni militants, their chances of survival look more bleak than ever. Isn’t it a fantastic achievement for this man of faith that, thanks to him, the language of Christ may soon die out?

Not only have hundreds of Christians been deliberately murdered since 2003, but over 60 churches have been bombed. Can you imagine the (rightful) anger in the Islamic world if Christian fundamentalists were allowed to slaughter mosque-goers in Europe? The Baghdad church massacre didn’t even trend on Twitter, and yet “British sausage week” did. If some Muslims despise the West and our frivolity, they have good reason to.

Why should we care? Because the exodus of Christians from the Middle East is a massive disaster in the making for everyone, as their flight removes a moderating force from the Islamic world. Christians in the region have for centuries acted as bridge-builders between East and West. As they flee, the chances of future understanding between historically Christian and Muslim civilisations recedes.

The vast majority of Iraqi Christians and Muslims live in peace with each other and have done so for hundreds of years, but in an unstable state it only takes a few nutters to create chaos and drive a community out. For that reason Iraq’s Assyrian Christians (they’re a different ethnic group as well as religion) have repeatedly called for an administrative unit in the Nineveh plains in northern Iraq, where they are most concentrated; this would be run and policed by Iraq’s minorities (not just the various types of Christians but several other tiny, obscure and threatened groups like the Mandaens, who are followers of John the Baptist).

The Assyrians maintain that without this protection they are doomed, but the Kurdish authorities oppose the plan, and so the Americans won’t help.Following the Baghdad massacre, they’ll be protesting in London this Monday at Noon, as part of a worldwide attempt to make the US and Europe listen. I’ll be there; I hope you can be too.

By Ed West and published by the Telegraph. Ed is a journalist and social commentator who specialises in politics, religion and low culture.

Message from Iraqi Christians in UK

With deep sorrow, the Iraqi Churches in the United Kingdom announce the sad news of the cowardly and barbaric attack on the innocent Christian Sunday worshipers.

On 31.10.10 during Sunday Mass at the Syriac Catholic Church Our Lady of Salvation, in Baghdad, two Catholic priests and more than sixty faithful were killed. Another 120 were wounded. Hundreds of dependents are now helpless.

For the past seven years, the Iraqi Christians have been targeted by waves of attacks on their churches, monasteries, homes, businesses and in persons. A Bishop and several priests were killed and even slaughtered in cold blood. Since the events of 2003 more than half the Iraqi Christians fled the country, thousands have been killed, and more than 60 churches, monasteries were bombed.

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and Christian leaders have come out with a strong condemnation of the Iraqi authorities and the foreign troops for not protecting the civilians, especially minorities. Many other countries have done so. We are yet to hear the same condemnation from HM Government.

Iraq is not often front page news except when there is a catastrophe like the one on 31.10.10. The problems of the Iraqi Christians still exist. It is a very heavy price being paid in blood by them who are deeply rooted in their country Iraq when others, regrettably, think NOT, and they are forcing them to leave.

We believe future developments could be even more serious. We therefore ask the Iraqi authorities and the entire world to ensure their safety, security and justice. We ask all peace-loving governments, Human Rights organizations to help the Christians of Iraq. These events are a milestone in the 2000 year history of Christianity in Iraq and the whole Middle East.

The Churches of the Iraqi communities in the United Kingdom will hold a remembrance service for the bereaved families of the Massacre at 19:00 on Friday 12th November 2010 at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 41 Brook Green, Hammersmith, London, W6 7BL

By the Independent Catholic News Agency

Vigil held for Iraqi Christians

The fallout from a church massacre in Baghdad, Iraq, rippled into El Cajon on Wednesday as several hundred Iraqi Christians mourned family and brethren killed in the weekend bloodbath.

The attack by militants unfolded 7,700 miles away, at the Our Lady of Salvation church. But for Iraqi refugees gathered at a downtown prayer vigil, it might as well have been next door.

Manal Naoom of El Cajon said her cousin, a pregnant 23-year-old, was among those slaughtered. “I’m just sickened,” Naoom said at the Prescott Promenade. “Isn’t a church supposed to be a safe haven, a safe place?”

Chaldean Catholic Diocese Bishop Mar Sarhad Y. Jammo tried to come to grips with what happened. At least 58 people were killed, including two priests.“We are in the year 2010. We are in the 21st century after Christ,” he told the somber crowd, his voice rising. “How can barbarism be so much alive?”He called on the U.S. government to take a more active role again in Iraq’s daily affairs. Most American combat troops pulled out of the country by August.

“It is the duty of America to ensure equal constitutional rights for all citizens of Iraq, including Christians,” the bishop said.Some urged the Iraqi government to crack down on militants, who have stepped up their long-running campaign to drive out Christians. An estimated 35,000 Chaldeans and other Iraqi refugees live in the El Cajon area. Many have left their homeland in recent years due to religious persecution.

A dozen police officers, five bystanders and at least 39 worshipers were killed in the massacre. Survivors said one of the priests grasped a Crucifix moments before he died, pleading with the gunmen not to shoot.The attackers reportedly yelled, “All of you are infidels!” A militant organization with ties to al-Qaeda said it was behind the killings.

Iraq’s Christian community dates back centuries. Most members are Catholics who attend Chaldean churches or Assyrian churches.On Wednesday, the American national anthem was sung at the start of the El Cajon event. One speaker, a deacon at a local Chaldean church, thanked East County for embracing the immigrant population.

Wameedh Tozy of El Cajon said he lost two loved ones in the attack — his uncle and the husband of a cousin. Tozy carried photos of both men at the vigil. His eyes were puffy and red.Tozy has little hope the Iraqi government will end the violence. For Christians still in that country, he said, “God help them.”

steve.schmidt@uniontrib.com • (619) 293-1380 • On Twitter @SteveSchmidt1

Iraqi Christians Consider Leaving

Vian Jabburi, a 22-year-old Roman Catholic, was celebrating Mass in Baghdad with her father on October 31 when Al-Qaeda militants stormed the church.Shot through her shoulder during the ensuing siege, Jabburi survived. Her father was also shot and slowly bled to death, while she lay helpless at his side in a pool of her own blood.

"Nothing resembles this experience. Nothing," Jabburi tells RFE/RL as she breaks down in tears at her father's funeral. "The situation was very, very difficult. I still don't know whether it was reality or just a nightmare. I do not know. I really don't know.

"We were bleeding for four or five hours without receiving any help," she adds. "I will leave it to God. He is the only one who can take our revenge."Jabburi is among thousands of Iraqi Christians who suffered through years of sectarian violence in Iraq but is now considering whether to stay any longer.Raad Ammanuel, head of the Office of Christian Endowment in Baghdad, says the attack has caused many Iraqi Christians to rethink whether they have a long-term future in Iraq.

"Those who have an injured member of their family or lost a loved one, they are talking about leaving the country," Ammanuel says. "We do not want this to happen and we do not encourage it. But still, we can not stop people from thinking this way. I have been discussing this with them. But what can I say and how can I reply when they ask me if I am going to bring back the ones they have lost?"

'This Is Our Country'

But other Iraqi Christians are adamant in their determination to stay. Among them is the family of Hanan Fadhil, a math teacher in the Karrada district whose cousin was killed in the October 31 assault."They want to destroy the country and create divisions and conflicts," Fadhil says. "We've been living here all our lives and we are not going to leave Iraq. We will stay. This is our country. I was born in 1956 and I'm now 54 years old. I've been here since then. How can I leave this country?"

Baghdad's heavily fortified Karrada district has been an island of tolerance in Baghdad, where Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims have continued to live alongside Christians in relative harmony.Luis al-Shabi, a Chaldean priest at the Mars Polis Church there, says most residents blame criminals and extremist fanatics for violence that has targeted Iraqis of all faiths.

"When a country is not stable, such things can happen. It happened many times in mosques and it happened also in [Christian] churches many times," Shabi says. "One of them is this recent disaster."But I have to say that Muslims do not do such things," he continues. "Those who commit such acts are not believers of Islam nor Christianity and not even in God. When they have the chance, they come to kill and to massacre people regardless of whether the victims are Muslims or Christians."

Targets Of Al-Qaeda

Indeed, Iraqi Christians have faced the same pattern of beheadings, kidnappings, rapes, and extortion that plagued Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunni communities during the years of chaos after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and before the surge operations of 2007 brought relative stability.That violence caused many Muslims to leave their homes, along with the hundreds of thousands from Iraq's Christian minority who have fled the country.

During the rule of Saddam Hussein, there were an estimated 1.4 million Christians living in Iraq -- many of them Chaldean-Assyrians and Armenians, but also a smaller number of Roman Catholics.Exact figures are impossible to confirm, but some estimates say two-thirds of Iraq's Christians have left the country since 2003 -- leaving fewer than 450,000 Iraqi Christians there today.Al-Qaeda militants want the exodus to continue. On November 3 they threatened to carry out more attacks against Iraqi Christians.

The Islamic State of Iraq, which claimed responsibility for the Baghdad cathedral assault, linked its warning to allegations that Egypt's Coptic Church is holding women captive if they convert to Islam.The group -- an umbrella organization that includes Al-Qaeda in Iraq and other allied Sunni insurgent factions -- is also demanding the release of Al-Qaeda prisoners held in Iraq.

Inflaming Sectarian Strife

Abu Gaith, a 28-year-old Sunni Muslim from the Karrada neighborhood, thinks Al-Qaeda has a deeper motive for targeting Christian churches.

"Everything is clear. The goal is to create problems and aggravate the already tense situation," he says. "The attackers are trying to create new opportunities and light a fire near a barrel of oil. They want the situation to go back to how it was two or three years ago, when there were sectarian conflicts between Sunnis, Shi'a or battles between Muslims and Christians".Western security analysts have come to the same conclusion, saying a weakened Al-Qaeda in Iraq is now trying to rebuild its reputation through high-profile terrorist attacks.

Jane's Security and Military Intelligence Consulting -- part of the British-based Jane's Information Group -- says Al-Qaeda in Iraq is trying to reignite large-scale and prolonged sectarian violence through focused attacks, particularly in Baghdad. It also warns that a wave of attacks across the country in late August suggests the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraqi cities has given the terrorist organization the space it needs to rebuild.

The analysis from Jane's concludes that the inability of Iraqi politicians to agree upon a new governing coalition has been detrimental to the abilities of Iraqi forces to maintain security.Residents of the Karrada district agree. "The only reason for what happened, not only [at the cathedral] but for what is happening every day, is the incompetence of [Iraqi] security forces, especially those deployed in the Karrada district," says Ahmad Jassim, a 40-year-old Shi'ite Muslim who owns a minimarket close to the cathedral in Karrada.

"We know there is a checkpoint or a police car in front of every church," he continues. "Now, how did the gunmen enter the church? Were there clashes before? We did not hear about clashes, which means [the gunmen] entered very easily. Again, how did this happen, especially in Karrada, which is almost like a military camp now?"That sentiment reflects the concerns of many Baghdad residents -- whether Shi'ite, Sunni, or Christian -- who say they have little confidence in the protection provided by Iraqi security forces as the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq continues.

By Maysoon Abo al-Hab, Ron Synovitz, RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq correspondents contributed to this report from Baghdad

Protect Iraq’s Christians

Fearing that our readers might think I only want to fill column space, I would have re-published my article "We Must Protect Iraq's Christians", first published on October 12th 2008.

In that article I said that "it is the duty of all Iraqis, not just the government in Baghdad, to protect Iraqi Christians from murder and displacement, and all types of repression against them, especially because they have never been part of alliances against Iraq. They did not come with [L. Paul] Bremer, and others. Iraqi Christians also suffer the worst conditions of any Christians in the region".

This came against the backdrop of an appeal from the Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk, Luis Saca, informing the Iraqi government of the need to protect Iraq’s Christians, when he said that "The Christians in Iraq do not have militias or clans to defend them". He added "I feel pain and injustice, because innocent people are being killed and we do not know why".

At the time, we faced condemnation and media campaigns by people affiliated with the Iraqi government, but here we are today witnessing a massacre, along with other atrocities against Christians in Iraq. The massacre did not happen at a checkpoint, or as the result of an assassination of a Christian figure at his home, or on a random road. Instead, it was an organized, armed attack on the Syriac Catholic Church of Our Lady, in the Karrada district of Baghdad. Reports suggest 52 people were killed, nearly two years after the call of Bishop Luis Saca, urging the Iraqi government to protect Christians.

It was striking when Father Youssef Thomas Mirkis, head of the Dominican sect in Iraq, said after yesterday’s massacre that "the plot had been in preparation for a long time, considering the weapons and ammunition found in the cathedral…these take a long time to stockpile". The words of the vicar of Iraq’s Syriac Catholic Church, Pius Kasha, were deeply saddening, when he said "what is clear now is that they [Christians] will all leave Iraq".

Thus, the question today is: What has been done since 2008, rather than 2003, by the Iraqi government to protect an Iraqi component from repression and organized violence? Unfortunately, the answer is nothing! It is easy to accuse al-Qaeda, an organization which never hesitates to commit massacres and atrocities. However, Iraqi Christians remain targets in public, and are outspoken in their demand for government protection, so what has Nuri al-Maliki’s government done for them?

One of the hostages in yesterday’s terrorist attack said "Men wearing military uniforms broke into the church carrying their weapons, and killed a priest on the spot". It is well known that since 2008, Iraq’s Christians, nearly half of whom have left the country, are now turning to the churches [instead of the government] in search of protection from violence. Interestingly, the targeted church was under the protection of security personnel, so how did the terrorists get in?

We can only return to what we said in 2008; that the targeting of minorities, including Iraqi Christians, means the disintegration of Iraq, and is an infringement upon its cultural and political composition. We must ensure that minorities are not excluded on sectarian or ethnic grounds, for this will open the gates of hell. Some are able to incite such a possibility, but so far no one can ensure this will not happen. We must also ensure that tomorrow, the same events do not occur but with Lebanon’s Christians, God forbid. Therefore we say: protect the Christians in our region, in order to protect the virtue of co-existence.

By Tariq Alhomayed

Attack on Christians

Sunday's attack by Al-Qaeda on a Catholic church in Baghdad and the slaughter of 46 worshippers has been condemned by the OIC, by Arab governments, by Iraq’s Muslim leaders. We too condemn it. It was an act of unspeakable evil.

Making it infinitely worse is the statement by Al-Qaeda in Iraq claiming responsibility. It has declared war on half a million Iraqi Christians because two Egyptian women, who supposedly converted from Coptic Christianity to Islam, are rumored to be held prisoner by Coptic monks somewhere in Egypt.

The story may or may not be true. The reality may well be more prosaic and connected to the fact that Coptic women get round their church’s ban on divorce by announcing they have converted to Islam and then reconvert (which is legal in Egypt) once they have secured a divorce. Whatever, the rumor is being stirred up by extremists for political gain. But it has nothing to do with Iraqi Catholics. Even if they and Egyptian Copts were one and the same — they are not — the reality is that people in Iraq have no control over what happens in Egypt and cannot be held responsible for it. To insist otherwise is no different from the twisted and bigoted thinking that demonizes all Saudis, all Arabs and Muslims, as terrorists because of the involvement of 17 of them in 9/11 attacks. That is repugnant and so is what Al-Qaeda claims in Iraq.

It is using the Egyptian rumor for its own deadly purposes. It has taken a leaf out of the Zionist history book, re-enacting it with barbaric enthusiasm. There is no difference between this massacre and that of Palestinians by Zionist storm-troopers at Deir Yassin in 1948. The aim is the same, ethnic cleansing. In 1948, the aim was to terrorize Palestinians into fleeing their homes. Today, Al-Qaeda wants to terrorize Iraqi Christians into flight. This week in Baghdad, St Mary’s Church has been Deir Yassin; Al-Qaeda, the Zionists.

The metaphor is not as bizarre as may seem. Al-Qaeda not only acts like the Zionists, it hands them real victories. There are Christians in a number of Arab states. They are Arab as much as the majority Muslims. They are an honored and cherished part of Arab society. Al-Qaeda is trying to divide Arab against Arab. And who gains the most from that? Israel.

Tragically, Al-Qaeda’s tactics may have some effect in Iraq. Around half a million Christians have already fled the country in fear of their lives since the US-led invasion. Others may now well join the exodus as a result of Sunday’s massacre. They know that without a government to enforce law and order and the Americans on the way out there will probably be more attacks.

Horrified Americans will no doubt put the blame for this purely on Al-Qaeda. It is to blame, but so are they. Saddam Hussein’s regime (pictured) was a dictatorship but there was peace and harmony between Muslims and Christians. With the invasion, they opened a Pandora’s box. Sectarianism is one of its terrible results.

By Arab News.Com

Bishop appeals for Tariq Aziz

A senior archbishop in Iraq is to appeal to the Government against the death sentence served on Tariq Aziz, who played a key role in Saddam Hussein's regime.

Archbishop Georges Casmoussa of Mosul described the recent decision by the Iraqi Supreme Court in favour of the death sentence as "wrong", saying he will beg the country's President and Prime Minister to save the life of the 74-year-old former foreign minister and deputy prime minister.

Aziz, who is reported to be in extremely poor health, is convicted of persecuting religious parties and being involved in illegal executions.Speaking from northern Iraq on October 27, the Syrian Catholic archbishop told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need: "We have to form an international appeal to the Iraqi Government to reverse their decision concerning Tariq Aziz.

"I am ready to sign any document asking that the death sentence is not carried out."Archbishop Casmoussa outlined plans to call on Christians and Muslims across Mosul to sign a petition against the Supreme Court's decision concerning Aziz, who was a Catholic of the Chaldean rite.

The archbishop's intervention came barely 24 hours after the Vatican released a statement condemning the decision, reiterating the Church's long-held opposition to the death penalty.Archbishop Casmoussa went on to defend Tariq Aziz who was convicted of persecuting religious (Shi'a) Muslim communities and being involved in the execution of merchants accused of profiteering.

The Catholic Church has long upheld its opposition to the death penalty irrespective of the outcome of criminal investigations.The archbishop, who was speaking after returning to Iraq following the Rome Synod of Bishops on the Middle East, said he was likely to mount a campaign similar to one organised after the death sentence was passed against former defence minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad.

Noting how Ahmad was still alive three years on, Archbishop Casmoussa said: "For defence minister Sultan, the people of Mosul - Muslims and Christians alike - signed a petition asking the Prime Minister and President of Iraq to save his life."Tariq Aziz served as foreign minister during the First Gulf War (1990-01) and later as Deputy Prime Minister.Aziz surrendered to US troops in April 2003 soon after Baghdad was taken.

In March 2009, he was imprisoned for 15 years for the executions of 42 Iraqi merchants.Five months later, he was sentenced to a further seven years in jail for his role in the forced displacement of Kurds.In a statement, Vatican spokesman Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi wrote: "The position of the Catholic Church on the death penalty is known.

"Therefore it is truly to be hoped that the sentence against Tariq Aziz will not be carried out precisely in order to favour reconciliation and the reconstruction of peace and justice in Iraq after the great suffering it has undergone."Fr Lombardi said the Vatican might use diplomatic channels to intervene in the case.

By the Catholic leader

Moscow blames U.S. for Aziz sentence

A death sentence for former Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz is an effort to cover up Washington's interference in Iraqi affairs, a Russian official said.Aziz and two other members of the former regime of Saddam Hussein were sentenced to death last week for their role in the persecution of Shiites in the 1980s. The sentence sparked international calls for leniency, though Washington said the matter was an Iraqi affair.

Konstantin Kosachev, an international affairs official in the Russian parliament, said the sentencing, which came two days after the watchdog group WikiLeaks released sensitive Iraqi documents, painted an alarming picture.Konstantin Kosachev, an international affairs official in the Russian parliament, said the sentencing, which came two days after the watchdog group WikiLeaks released sensitive Iraqi documents, painted an alarming picture.

"The coincidence," he said, "is an attempt to draw the attention of the international community from the information that was published on the Internet," he was quoted by Russian's state-run news agency RIA Novosti as saying.Leonid Kalashnikov, a Communist lawmaker, said the death sentence was handed down because Aziz knew "too much about the period preceding the U.S. interfering in Iraqi affairs."Aziz, the highest-raking Christian in the Saddam regime, is in ill health after suffering a stroke earlier this year.

Though apparently unrelated, his sentence comes as members of the Christian community became targets of Iraq's al-Qaida organization.Iraqi militants seized the Our Lady of Deliverance church in Baghdad, a Roman Catholic facility, Sunday, taking about 120 people hostage. Iraqi anti-terror forces stormed the church Monday. Fifty-two people, including a Catholic priest, were killed in the resulting fighting.

UPI News

Italy: Frattini intends to prevent execution

Italy's foreign minister says he intends to go to Baghdad to try to convince the Iraqis to call off the execution of former foreign minister Tariq Aziz.

In a statement Monday, the Foreign Ministry confirmed that Franco Frattini had told Iraqi officials he would travel to Iraq to ask them to spare Aziz's life.The statement said the Iraqis reaffirmed that the sentence had been suspended pending appeals and any final decision would take months.

Aziz, the highest ranking Christian in Saddam Hussein's regime, was sentenced Oct. 26 to death by hanging for persecuting members of the Shiite religious parties that now dominate the country.Italy and the Vatican, among others, strongly opposed the sentence.

By The Associated Press

Aziz should not hang

THE international face of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, his Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, has been sentenced to hang.

A spokesperson for the Vatican, Father Federico [sic] Lombardi, has already urged Iraq not to carry out the execution. The Catholic Church stands resolutely against capital punishment — and their plea is given even more pertinence because, oddly enough, Tariq Aziz is a Roman Catholic.

This religious anomaly — a Catholic serving in the governing body of an Islamic country — says something about Saddam Hussein’s regime, in a positive sense. Such a situation in, say, Saudi Arabia — one of the West’s allies in the Middle East — is utterly inconceivable. Allied troops stationed in some Gulf states are banned from any Christian worship.

Iraqi society under Saddam was brutal — of that there is no doubt — but it was by no means the most repressive state in the Middle East. Even Iraqi Jews lament the passing of Saddam’s regime. An ancient part of the society, they were able to live, trade and worship in relative peace. Now matters are infinitely more difficult.

Women — of all ethnic and religious backgrounds — have similarly found their rights and quality of life eroded.Tony Blair’s part in the decision to go to war in conjunction with George Bush is baffling. How could someone who called it so right in the North of Ireland get it so wrong in the Middle East?

Tariq Aziz was undoubtedly privy to the machinations of Saddam Hussein.However, almost all the savagery was carried out solely on Saddam’s orders, and enacted by his family. For multifarious reasons Tariq Aziz should not be executed, and Tony Blair as a humanitarian, as a peacemaker in the North of Ireland, as the special Middle East envoy on behalf of the EU, UN, USA and Russia — and also as a fellow Catholic — should make strenuous efforts to get the former Iraqi Prime Minister’s death sentence commuted.

Not only would this be the correct compassionate and civilised response — it might also, as the Vatican has said, encourage reconciliation and the rebuilding of peace and justice in Iraq. The alternative is that we find ourselves back at that grizzly, blood-stained location — square one.

The Irish Post

'Bury me in Jordan after Execution' - Tariq Aziz

Ziyad Aziz, son of former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz who was recently sentenced to death in an Iraqi court, said that his father stressed in his will that he wants to be buried in Jordan following his execution or death in prison, out of fear that his grave will be desecrated or his body exhumed by current Iraqi authorities.

Aziz added that his father wrote in a letter to his lawyer Suleiman Jabburi that he wishes to be buried in Jordan temporarily, and that his body should be returned to be buried in his country "after Iraq is liberated."The son said his father fears his grave would be desecrated and his body exhumed as happened to the body of former Iraqi prime minister Muhammad Hamzeh Al Zubaidi.

Meanwhile, international entities called for a reduced sentence for Tariq Aziz, who was also former foreign minister under Saddam Hussein’s regime, considering that he suffers from various ailments, and recently suffered a brain stroke.An Iraqi court last week sentenced Aziz to death by hanging to be executed within 30 days by the Iraqi Presidential Council.


* Photo: Copy of the letter written by Tariq Aziz to his lawyer from Prison in Baghdad.

by AMMON NEWS

Bloodshed in Baghdad

Grieving Catholics in Baghdad marked All Saints Day Monday in mourning for 46 Christians killed during a hostage drama with Al-Qaeda gunmen that ended in an assault by Iraqi forces backed by US troops.

Mourners throughout Monday were seen carrying coffins containing bodies of the dead from out of the church and loading them onto vehicles for transfer to the morgue. Most of the victims were to be buried on Tuesday.The rescue drama on Sunday night, two months after US forces formally concluded combat operations in Iraq, ended with two priests among at least 46 slain worshippers.

"It was carnage," said Monsignor Pius Kasha, whose Syriac Catholic church was targeted by the militants, whom witnesses said were all armed with automatic rifles and suicide belts."There were less than 80 people inside the church, and only 10 to 12 escaped unhurt," he said, giving an account that differed from the official Iraqi version. He said two priests were killed, and 25 worshippers were wounded, among them a priest who was shot in the kidney.

An interior ministry official, in an updated toll, said there had been more than 100 worshippers in the church and that 46 had been killed and 60 wounded. He said seven security members also had died, adding that five attackers were killed.A witness said that immediately on entering the Sayidat al-Nejat Syriac Christian cathedral during evening mass, the gunmen shot dead a priest while worshippers huddled in fear.

"They entered the church with their weapons, wearing military uniforms. They came into the prayer hall, and immediately killed the priest," said one of the freed hostages, an 18-year-old man who declined to give his name."We heard a lot of gunfire and explosions, and some people were hurt from falling windows, doors and debris."

Iraqi officials had said that at least one of the gunmen who raided the cathedral had blown himself up with a suicide belt as police made a first attempt to enter. Witnesses said the militants had began to fire their weapons as soon as they entered the church.

Traces of Flesh, blood, bullet marks and shattered glass littered the cathedral, said an AFP journalist who went to the scene in Baghdad's central Karrada district Monday."It resembles a battlefield," he said.

US soldiers dressed in combat gear also took part in the assault, some of the witnesses said."I was freed by Americans, they came first and the Iraqis came after," said an 18-year-old man outside the church, shortly after drama ended.

Another freed hostage said the same, and an AFP reporter saw American soldiers in assault gear at the scene.But Sameer al-Shuaili, spokesman of Iraq's anti-terror unit, said that no Americans were involved.

"The (Iraqi) anti-terror forces are the only forces who raided the church, there were no Americans at all," he said.The US military said it had "advisers" near the scene, but that US soldiers were not involved in the assault.

"There were no US soldiers involved in the assault to free the hostages," said Colonel Barry Johnson, a US military spokesman in Iraq.The Chaldean bishop of Baghdad, Bishop Shlimoune Wardouni, said that the gunmen were demanding the release of detainees held in Iraq and Egypt.

The SITE monitoring group said Monday that the Islamic State of Iraq, the local branch of Al-Qaeda, had claimed the Baghdad attack, saying its fighters had captured the Christians and also gave the Coptic church in Egypt a 48-hour deadline to release women it said were being held captive by the Christians.

SITE said the threat comes amid calls by jihadists and Al-Qaeda's media arm for Muslims to take action against the Egyptian Coptic church over the alleged imprisonment of two women, both wives of Coptic priests.

Egypt refused on Monday to react to the demands."Egypt categorically rejects having its name or affairs pushed into such criminal acts," the foreign ministry said in a statement issued in Cairo. It also "strongly condemned" the attack on the Baghdad church.

The Vatican, Italy and France also condemned the hostage-taking in Baghdad, with Pope Benedict XVI on Monday branding the attack as "absurd and ferocious violence" against Christians in Iraq.Around 800,000 Christians lived in Iraq in 2003 but their number has since shrunk to 550,000 as members of the community have fled abroad, according to Christian leaders.

Iraqi Christians have frequently been the target of violence, including murder and abductions. Hundreds have been killed and several churches attacked since the US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein in 2003.Violence has abated in Iraq since its peak in 2006-2007, but deadly bombings, gunfights and kidnappings are still routine.

By Khalil Murshadi

Baghdad Church Ends in Bloodbath

Iraqi antiterrorist forces stormed a church where gunmen had taken close to 100 hostages on Sunday in an afternoon of chaos that became a bloodbath. At least 30 hostages and 7 security officers were killed, and 41 hostages and 15 security force members were wounded, according to a source at the Ministry of the Interior.

The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.Abdul-Kader Jassem al-Obeidi, the minister of defense, said that most of the hostages were killed or wounded when the kidnappers set off at least two suicide vests as they took over the church. He defended the decision to storm the building, saying, "This was a successful operation with a minimum of casualties, and killing all the terrorists." He added that an unspecified number of suspects were also arrested.

The source at the Ministry of the Interior said that the police had arrested eight gunmen believed to be affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq, a militant organization connected to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.Hussain Nahidh, a police officer who saw the interior of the church, said: "It’s a horrible scene. More than 50 people were killed. The suicide vests were filled with ball bearings to kill as many people as possible. You can see human flesh everywhere. Flesh was stuck to the top roof of the hall. Many people went to the hospitals without legs and hands."

The violence began shortly after 5 p.m. on Sunday. The gunmen first attacked the Baghdad stock exchange in the Karada neighborhood, killing two security guards and wounding four others, setting off two bombs and then taking refuge in the nearby Sayidat al-Nejat church.The church — one of six bombed in August 2004 — was filled for Sunday services. A local television channel, Baghdadiya, reported receiving a telephone call from someone claiming to be one of the attackers and demanding the release of all members of Al Qaeda imprisoned in Arab countries.

Karada is an area dotted with federal police checkpoints, local police patrols and political parties with security details, as well as security guards attached to the stock market and the church. Mr. Obeidi, the defense minister, said, "It seems like there was negligence by the security forces, which we will investigate later."The attack came two days after a suicide attack at a cafe in Diyala Province killed 21 people, the worst assault in more than a month, and as members of Iraq’s four political blocs planned to meet in the heavily fortified Green Zone to try to break the impasse that has left Iraq without a new government nearly eight months after the national election.

Major acts of violence have not proliferated during the political deadlock, as many have feared, but smaller, focused attacks have been commonplace, stirring fears of a return to high levels of bloodshed.The Iraqi antiterrorist unit, known as the Golden Force, which has been criticized for not being able to stop attacks, moved quickly to end the siege. Its forces swarmed the church by helicopter and sent in grenades and smoke grenades, but were rebuffed by the terrorists.

Security officers then stormed the church from the ground, breaking through the gates. Spokesmen from the police and the Ministry of the Interior would not give details of the final assault on the church, or say how many kidnappers were involved.It was unclear whether the attackers’ main target was the stock market or the church, or whether they planned to attack both.

The church, with a huge cross visible from hundreds of yards away, was already surrounded with concrete bollards and razor wire, and church leaders have been fearful of attack since the Rev. Terry Jones in Gainesville, Fla., threatened to burn a Koran on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Mr. Jones decided not to burn the Koran.

By JOHN LELAND, Iraqi employees of The New York Times contributed reporting.