From here:

Iraqi security forces stormed a Baghdad church where militants had taken an entire congregation hostage for four hours, leaving at least 52 people dead, including a priest, Iraqi officials said Monday.

It was not immediately clear whether the hostages died at the hands of the attackers or during the rescue late on Sunday night in an affluent neighbourhood of the capital.

The incident began when militants wearing suicide vests and armed with grenades attacked the Iraqi stock exchange at dusk Sunday before turning their attention to the nearby Our Lady of Deliverance church — one of Baghdad’s main Catholic places of worship — taking about 120 Christians hostage.

Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal, the deputy interior minister, said 52 people were killed and 67 wounded in the bloodbath. Officials said at least one priest and 10 policemen were among the dead. Many of the wounded were women.

The Daily Mail notes: “The group, which is linked to al Qaeda in Iraq, said it would ‘exterminate Iraqi Christians’ if jailed militants were not freed.”

It seems that those ubiquitous generic “militants” have been a bit naughty yet again. Better not call it what it is: the mass murder of innocent worshipping Christians by cowardly Islamist terrorist thugs – we wouldn’t want to provoke an outburst of uncontrollable Islamophobia.

Fred Hiltz, Katharine Jefferts-Schori and assorted trendy bishops wrung their collective hands in horror at the mere prospect of someone igniting a Koran; one wonders what they will do to express their disapproval of Christians being murdered by followers of the Book That Wasn’t Burnt? Nothing, I imagine – it’s called asymmetrical commiserating.