2010 Baghdad church siege

On 31 October 2010, six suicide bombers of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) militant group stormed into the Sayidat al-Nejat Cathedral (a Syriac Catholic church in Baghdad) during Sunday evening Mass, taking the congregants hostage. The ISI was a militant group which aimed to overthrow the Iraqi federal government and establish an Islamic state in Iraq.

Hours later, Iraqi commandos stormed the church. In the ensuing confrontation, fifty-eight worshippers, priests, policemen, and bystanders were killed and seventy-eight were wounded or maimed. World leaders and some Iraqi Sunni and Shi'ite imams condemned the massacre.

In late November 2010, Huthaifa al-Batawi, who was accused of masterminding the assault, was arrested along with eleven others in connection with the attack. During a failed attempt to escape in May 2011, Batawi and ten other senior ISI militants were killed by an Iraqi SWAT team. On 2 August 2011, three other men were sentenced to death and a fourth to 20 years in prison in connection with the massacre. In 2012, an appeals court confirmed the sentences.