Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi security forces stormed a Catholic church Sunday where gunmen suspected of having ties to al Qaeda were holding worshippers hostage, ending an hours-long standoff, police officials said Sunday.
Thirty-seven people were killed in the operation, including hostages, kidnappers and security workers, they said. At least seven of the victims were hostages, police officials said, while another 57 were wounded.
Eight suspects were arrested.
"All the marks point out that this incident carries the fingerprints of al Qaeda," Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul Qader Obeidi said on state television Sunday.
He said that most of the hostages were killed or wounded when the kidnappers set off explosives inside the church.
The Islamic State of Iraq later claimed responsibility for the attack through a statement posted on a radical Islamic website. The umbrella group includes a number of Sunni extremist organizations and has ties to al Qaeda in Iraq.
"The Mujahideens raided a filthy nest of the nests of polytheism, which has been long taken by the Christians of Iraq as a headquarter for a war against the religion of Islam and they were able by the grace of God and His glory to capture those were gathered in and to take full control of all its entrances," the group said on the website.
An American military spokesman said that as many as 10 hostages died and that between 20 and 30 people were injured in the operation. Seven Iraqi security workers and between five and seven suspected insurgents were also killed, said Lt. Col. Eric Bloom.
Survivors of the ordeal said they were about to begin Sunday night services when the gunmen entered the church, according to Martin Chulov, a journalist for the UK-based Guardian newspaper who was on the scene. About 50 people were inside the church at the time, and a priest ushered them into a back room, Chulov reported survivors said.
The U.S. military spokesman said that as many as 120 people were taken hostage.
At one point, one of the gunmen entered the room and threw an unidentified explosive device inside, causing casualties, Chulov said.
The gunmen seized the hostages after attacking the Baghdad Stock Market in the central part of the Iraqi capital, earlier Sunday, police said. Four armed men entered the nearby Sayidat al-Nejat church after clashing with Iraqi security forces trying to repel the stock market attack.
CNN
