Fifty-two killed in Iraq church raid

Fifty-two hostages and police officers were killed when security forces raided a Baghdad church to free more than 100 Iraqi Catholics held by al-Qaeda-linked gunmen, a deputy interior minister said on Monday.

Lieutenant General Hussein Kamal said 67 people were also wounded in the raid on the church, which was seized by guerrillas during Sunday mass in the bloodiest attack in Iraq since August. The death toll was many times higher than that given overnight in the hours after the raid.

The gunmen took hostages at the Our Lady of Salvation Church, one of Baghdad's largest and demanded the release of al-Qaeda prisoners in Iraq and Egypt.

"This death toll is for civilians and security force members. We don't differentiate between police and civilians. They are all Iraqis," Kamal said, adding the number did not include dead attackers.

At least one bomb exploded at the start of the siege. Sporadic gunfire rang out for several hours over the Karrada neighbourhood near the heavily fortified Green Zone district where many embassies and government offices are located.

US and Iraqi military helicopters thundered overhead as security forces cordoned off the area.

A federal police source who declined to be identified said that Sunday's rescue operation was extremely difficult.

"The attackers were among children, armed with weapons," the source said. "Most of the casualties were killed or wounded when the security forces raided the place."

Iraq's Christian minority has frequently been targeted by militants, with churches bombed and priests assassinated.

"While I was trying to find my way out, in the dark, I walked over bodies," a Christian woman who was one of the hostages told Reuters late on Sunday, asking not to be identified. "There are many bodies there."

Officials say some of the attackers blew up explosives vests or threw grenades during the raid.

Officials said the attackers threatened to kill the 120 hostages unless al Qaeda prisoners in Iraq and Egypt were freed.

A Christian lawmaker denounced the performance of Iraqi security forces in the incident and said the lack of a new government in Iraq almost eight months after an inconclusive election was being exploited by insurgents.

"This operation hits at the credibility of the government and its ability to handle, preserve and impose security and the enforcement of law," the member of Parliament, Younadam Kana, said.

"Because of their lack of professionalism, and the hasty action taken by security forces in freeing the hostages, many innocent people were killed."

The failure of Iraqi leaders to agree on a new government so long after the March election has stoked tensions just as US forces cut back their presence and end combat operations ahead of a full withdrawal next year.

Although violence has fallen sharply since the height of sectarian bloodshed in 2006-07, attacks by Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaeda and Shi'ite militia continue daily.

Sunday's attack followed the bombing of a cafe in Diyala province on Friday in which 22 people died, interrupting a relatively long period without a major assault by suspected Sunni Islamist insurgents.

The last high-profile suicide bombing took place on September 5 when insurgents stormed an army base in Baghdad.

Al-Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack on "the dirty den of idolatry".

It said in a statement posted on radical Islamic websites that it was an action against the Coptic church in Egypt, which it seemed to accuse of imprisoning Muslim women.