SCORES KILLED/SCORES INJURED: BLOODBATH ENDS BAGHDAD CHURCH HOSTAGE SITUATION

NYTIMES:Hostage Case at Baghdad Church Ends in Bloodbath

Iraqi police stormed a church where gunmen had taken close to 100 hostages, leading to a bloodbath that left at least 30 hostages and seven security forces dead and 41 hostages and 15 security force members wounded, according to a source at the Ministry of Information.

The police arrested eight gunmen, who are believed to be affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq, a militant organization affiliated with Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The ministry source spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

For hours afterward confusion reigned in the area of the church, American military helicopters hovered overhead, and forces from the Iraqi Army, federal police, local police and the Badr Organization, the former militia wing of a leading Shiite political party, surrounded the church and closed the area to reporters. The killed and wounded were sent to three hospitals.

The attack began shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday when the gunmen attacked the Baghdad stock exchange in the Karada neighborhood, killing two of security guards and wounding four others, then taking refuge in the nearby Sayidat al-Nejat church. The gunmen also set off two bombs outside the exchange.

The church, one of six bombed during an attack in August 2004, was filled for Sunday services, and the attackers held about 100 hostages.

THESE JIHADISTS ARE THE WORST ANIMALS IN HUMAN HISTORY:

TAKING CHURCHGOERS HOSTAGE; PLANTING DOZENS OF BOMBS ON JETS; COMMITTING GENOCIDE FROM THE PHILIPPINES TO LEBANON AND SOUTH TO THE SUDAN.

THERE IS NO REASONING WITH THIS SCUM.

THEY CANNOT BE APPEASED, AND WE SHOULD STOP TRYING.

THEY SHOULD BE ERADICATED - USING ANY AND ALL WEAPONS AT OUR DISPOSAL.

FASTER PLEASE!