Iraq TV station taken off air after deadly church raid
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Salah Abdul-Razaq, Governor of Baghdad, describes the scene inside the church
Al-Baghdadia, the TV station in Baghdad that said it was contacted by gunmen during Sunday's church hostage drama, has been taken off air.
It stopped transmitting shortly after its building was taken over, reportedly by a large number of government troops.
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The station says its director and another employee have been charged with terrorism-related offences.
At least 52 people died when troops stormed the Baghdad church in which gunmen were holding dozens of hostages.
The Iraqi government says it had no choice but to storm the Catholic church on Sunday night: Defence Minister Abdul-Qadr al-Obeidi said the gunmen had threatened to kill all their captives.
Al-Baghdadia - an independent station based in Egypt - says its public hotline number was phoned by the gunmen who requested it broadcast the news that they wanted to negotiate.
As the station was being taken over, it broadcast pictures of security forces surrounding the building, before the screen went blank. Transmission then resumed from al-Baghdadia's Cairo studio. The station says its office in Basra has also been taken over by security forces.
It has called a sit-in at the building and appealed to local and foreign media to attend in soldidarity.
'Impossible to wait'
Officials say six attackers were among those killed in Sunday night's fighting, with many of the deaths caused by a militant who detonated a suicide vest.
Many women were among the dozens of people wounded in the fighting.
Witnesses say the interior of Our Lady of Salvation - where around 100 people had been celebrating an evening Mass - resembled a battlefield.
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ATTACKS ON IRAQI CHRISTIANS SINCE 2003
Aug 2004 - series of bombings targets five churches, killing 11
October 2006 - Orthodox priest, Boulos Iskander, snatched in Mosul by group demanding ransom. Despite payment of the ransom, priest found beheaded, his arms and legs also cut off
June 2007 - Ragheed Ganni - a priest and secretary to Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahh, killed in 2008 - shot dead in his church along with three companions
January 2008 - Bombs go off outside three Chaldean and Assyrian churches in Mosul, two churches in Kirkuk and four in Baghdad
February 2008 - Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahh kidnapped; body found in shallow grave two weeks later
April 2008 - Fr Adel Youssef, an Assyrian Orthodox priest, shot dead by unknown assailants
February 2010 - At least eight Christians die in a two-week spate of attacks in northern city of Mosul
Eyewitness: 'Gunshots everywhere'
Your stories: Church attack
In pictures: Baghdad church siege
Iraqi Christians' long history
Throughout Monday mourners carried coffins from the church, loading them on to vehicles bound for the morgue ahead of funerals on Tuesday.
Raed Hadi, who tied the coffin of his cousin to the roof of a car, said the raid had resulted in a "massacre".
"We Christians don't have enough protection," he said. "What shall I do now? Leave and ask for asylum?"
The gunmen had reportedly demanded the release of jailed al-Qaeda militants.
A statement was posted on a militant website allegedly run by the Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni militant umbrella group to which al-Qaeda in Iraq belongs, claiming responsibility for the attack.
The statement reportedly said Iraqi Christians would be "exterminated" if Muslim women in Egypt were not freed. It specifically mentioned two women in Egypt who radicals believe are being held against their will after converting to Islam.
Iraqi Defence Minister Abdul-Qadr al-Obeidi said security forces approached the building at ground level and from the air.
"We took a decision to launch a land offensive, and in addition an airdrop, because it was impossible to wait - the terrorists were planning to kill a large number of our brothers, the Christians who were at Mass," said Mr Obeidi.
"So the operation was successfully done. All terrorists were killed. And we now have other suspects in detention."
Witnesses say they saw US troops on the ground and US military helicopters hovering above the scene, but the extent of their involvement is not yet clear.
Younadim Kanna, a Christian Iraqi MP, said the government had failed to protect its citizens, but added that the Christian community would not be intimidated by violence.
"Despite all of these terrorist attacks against the Christians, we are determined not to leave our country," he said.
'Absurd violence'
Residents of Baghdad's affluent Karada district, where the attack took place, first heard a loud explosion at about 1700 (1400 GMT) on Sunday, believed to have been a car bomb.
The blast was followed by gunfire as a group of armed men attacked the Iraq Stock Exchange, police said, and then took over the Catholic church just across the road, clashing with guards and killing some.
It seems the church was the attackers' real target, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad.
One eyewitness inside the church said the gunmen "came into the prayer hall and immediately killed the priest". The witness, who declined to give his name, said worshippers were beaten and herded into an inner hall.
The militants made contact with authorities by mobile phone, demanding the release of al-Qaeda prisoners and also of a number of Muslim women they insisted were being held prisoner by the Coptic Church in Egypt.
But the discussions got nowhere, our correspondent says, and the security forces stormed the church.
Witnesses nearby said they then heard two explosions from inside the church and more shooting. The gunmen reportedly threw grenades and detonated suicide vests.
Pope Benedict XVI denounced the attack as he gave a holiday blessing on Monday.
Minority Rights Group International (MRG) said religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq faced unprecedented levels of violence.
"The security situation for Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq has become critical,' said executive director Mark Lattimer.
"The safety of minorities must now become an urgent priority for the Iraqi government, with security measures planned in full co-operation with community leaders."
Many churches have been bombed in recent years - including Our Lady of Salvation in August 2004 - and priests kidnapped and killed, but there has never been a prolonged hostage situation like this before, our correspondent says.
Christians - many from from ancient denominations - have been leaving Iraq in droves since the US-led invasion in 2003. About 600,000 remain
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