BAGHDAD: Grieving and fearful mourners in Baghdad were Tuesday burying dozens of Christians, including two priests, killed during a hostage drama carried out by Al-Qaeda gunmen that ended in a bloodbath.
Tearful women in black were among dozens of people who gathered outside the morgue of the Saint Raphael hospital to accompany the bodies of fathers Taher Saadallah Boutros, 32, and Wassim Sabih, 23, to a memorial service.
The priests were among 46 Christians killed during Sunday’s hostage drama during mass a Baghdad cathedral that ended in an assault by Iraqi forces backed by US troops.
Security forces escorted the funeral convoy to the Saint Joseph Chaldean church in Baghdad’s Karrada neighbourhood as mourners held up portraits of the dead priests as well as Iraqi flags.
They walked somberly behind two cars, one bearing the coffin of Father Boutros and the coffin of his brother Raed, who was also killed in Sunday’s carnage. The other car carried the coffin of Father Sabih.
"All the families of the victims are invited to this ceremony, but I don’t know yet how many will come," said Monsignor Pius Kasha, the vicar of Iraq’s Syriac Catholic church, alluding to the ripples of fear the attack has sent through Iraq’s dwindling Christian community.
He said that Boutrous, who was also known as Father Athir, would be laid to rest near Father Sabih.
"The two priests killed in the attacks were inseparable and they will be buried at a cemetery next to the Sayidat al-Nejat cathedral," where the Sunday evening’s attack took place.
The memorial service at Saint Joseph church was for all the victims of the bloodbath but not all of the dead were being buried Tuesday at the same location.
Witnesses said that heavily armed militants burst into the church during Sunday mass and took about 80 worshippers hostage.
The hostage drama ended with a raid by Iraqi Special Forces, while the US military provided an advisory role.
Forty-six Christians were killed and 60 wounded, Iraqi officials have said, adding that seven members of the security forces also died.
Survivors said the gunmen who stormed Sayidat Al-Nejat Catholic cathedral wore military uniforms and were armed with Kalashnikov rifles, grenades and suicide vests.
"Taher was praying and reading a passage from the Bible when the armed men arrived," the uncle of Father Boutros said, relating what one of the survivors told him.
"He told them ‘kill me but let the worshippers go in peace’," he said.
A 24-year-old survivor, who gave his name only as Steven, said the gunmen told Father Boutros: "’Convert to Islam because in any case you will die,’ and then they shot him in the head."
The attack, claimed by an Al-Qaeda affiliate, was one of the deadliest against Iraqi Christians and provoked a wave of international condemnation.
Many Christians have said the killings will speed up the mass exodus of Christians from Iraq.
The number of Christians in Iraq numbered about 800,000 before the 2003 US-led invasion, but have falled to 500,000 since then.
