By Baghdadhope*
"It 'a great tragedy, something unfair and irresponsible. We pray for God to enlighten the minds and the hearts of the terrorists who should think of the good of the people, of their families, and do not follow these paths that are not the paths of God but those of the devil."
With these words Msgr.Warduni, Chaldean Patriarchal Vicar of Baghdad, described to Baghdadhope the attack on the Syriac Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation that took place this afternoon.
"The attack occurred at around 18:00 or 18:30. I can't be more precise because just at that time I was celebrating the holy mass."
The media are writing about victims, what do you know about them?
"By now I know there are casualties among the guards outside the church and that a little girl was killed. But since the terrorists were kamikaze I can't exclude other wounded and other victims."
It is said that among the hostages there were also 19 nuns, a piece of news that you can confirm?
"I do not know exactly who were the hostages and so I can't confirm that among them there were the sisters or not. No one is allowed to approach the area where the church is. We tried to call also the two priests who were present at the moment of the attack, Father Sahir and Father Wasim but they did not answer to our calls and we do not know why, maybe they can't or maybe their phones were seized."
At the time of the attack the Syriac Catholic bishop, Msgr. Matti Shaba Matoka was in the church?
"No, the bishop has not yet returned to Baghdad after attending the synod for the Middle East in Rome."
Such an attack, with hostage-taking in a church had never happened in Iraq ...
"As reported by Ishtar TV the kamikaze are part of the group of the Islamic State of Iraq and demanded the release of all terrorists of Al Qaeda imprisoned in Iraq and Egypt. By now we know nothing more except that it is a great tragedy for all the Iraqi people."
According to some reports received by Baghdadhope from other sources of the church but not yet confirmed the priests present at the time of the attack would be three, Father Sahir, Father Wasim and Father Rufail.
