CHURCH BUILDING
Sayidat al-Nejat Cathedral
Baghdad · Syriac Catholic
- Locality
- Baghdad
- Tradition
- Syriac Catholic
- Type of place
- CHURCH BUILDING
- Coordinates
- 33.30708° N, 44.42619° E
- Identity
- Matched to a public listing
A brief history
Sayidat al-Nejat — Our Lady of Salvation — is the Syriac Catholic cathedral of Baghdad. On 31 October 2010, six suicide bombers of the Islamic State of Iraq stormed the building during Sunday evening Mass and held the congregation hostage. When Iraqi commandos entered hours later, fifty-eight worshippers, priests, policemen and bystanders were killed and seventy-eight were wounded. Sunni and Shia imams in Iraq joined world leaders in condemning the massacre.
An interesting detail
The man accused of planning the assault was arrested weeks later; three others were sentenced to death in 2011, and an appeals court confirmed the sentences in 2012.