Baghdad church attack survivor is slain at home

Source: Dallas Morning News
Associated Press,  04 Jan 2011



68 People were killed in the Baghdad blast on Oct. 31, 2010

  BAGHDAD - Rafah Toma survived one of the most horrific attacks on Iraq's tiny Christian community – the siege on a Baghdad church two months ago that left 68 people dead – only to be gunned down in her home Monday by thieves taking her cash and jewelry.
It was not clear whether Toma's death was the latest attack to target Iraq's beleaguered Christians, or instead one of the nation's all-too-common robberies.
The priest who found her battered body, Father Mukhlis, serves at the Our Lady of Salvation church, where more than 120 people were taken hostage Oct. 31 after gunmen stormed the building during an evening Mass. He said that Toma, who was in her 50s, was one of the parishioners at Mass that evening.
"It was her fate to not die in the attack on the church but to die by gunmen who killed her to steal her gold and money," he said. "Christians face a tragedy in this country."
Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, Iraqi Christians have suffered repeated violence and harassment from Sunni Muslim extremists who view them as infidels and agents of the West, but since the church siege the dwindling community is feeling itself even more of a target.
"As Christians we feel we've been sentenced to death, and we're waiting for an execution day," said George Abdul Ahad, a 55-year-old Christian from Baghdad. Like thousands of other Christians, he's thinking of leaving the country.
(AP)