Iraqi arrest perpetrators of saydet al najat church Assignment

Iraqi arrest perpetrators of saydet al najat church - Assignment Example The church building is easy to track as it is one of the two in the Muslim neighborhood located in Baghdad, Iraq. in the At the church grounds, everything appeared normal. The church compound was silent; an individual could hear a pin drop. We proceeded to get a seat in the church as the Sunday proceeding had got underway and the preacher was giving the sermon. Approximately ten minutes into the sermon, a commotion got heard from outside the church. A car screeched into the compound, and there was hesitation by the preacher in his speech. The sound of boots hitting the ground outside the got heard from within the church building. Everyone in the building got visibly terrified from the facial expressions. Shouting from outside the church could now get heard too. The shouting together with the sounds of the boots neared the church building entrance (Pope, 2002). The preacher had by now stopped preaching. He asked the ushers to head outside and check on what was taking place. No sooner had the first usher got to the entrance, that gun sounds got heard. Everyone in the church started running helter skelter looking for a hiding place and heading out of the building via other church exits. Everything was happening so fast while time appeared to halt. My husband had meanwhile taken the child and lay under a church bench. I quickly followed suit! The shooting got rampant as cries got louder. Bullets were flying all over the building as evidenced by a shell that fell just besides me under the seat. My husband held our daughter’s mouth to prevent her from wailing. As the gunmen ceased to fire, they quickly ran out of the building shouting to each other in jubilant mood. Ten minutes passed, and not a soul moved about in the church. Police sirens got heard from outside the compound. Within seconds, police got in the building asking those still hiding to come out. There was hesitation at first, but slowly people crept out of their hiding places. The devastation was c lear, dead bodies got left scattered in the church. Bullet shells lay all over the building (Pope, 2002). Blood marks were everywhere. The police led the survivors into waiting police cars as they continued with their investigation. News crews had gathered outside as survivors got received by counselors. My family and I got taken for a check up in a nearby ambulance. This experience could get described as twenty minutes in hell. Fast forward a month later and hundreds of Iraqi Muslims and Christians in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood take to the streets in celebration. This followed the announcement that the perpetrators of the attacks on the Sayedat al-Najat Church got arrested. Residents of the neighborhood that saw the October 31st attacks launched fireworks and played patriotic songs in cafes, shops and residences. Al-Qaeda leader arrested The Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced the arrest of the terrorist cell that gets believed to be responsible for the attack that targeted th e church in central Baghdad late last month. Scores of people got killed and wounded. Security forces made the arrests during a raid on November 24th at dawn targeting a residential building in the al-Dawoodi neighborhood in central Baghdad. The building got used by the suspects as headquarters, Maj. Gen. Ragheef, director of internal affairs, Ministry of Interior, said in a press conference held Saturday evening in Baghdad (Pope, 2002). Ragheef said the group consisted of 12 suspected terrorists,