Competence of Iraqi security forces questioned after church siege

Authorities in Iraq are stepping up security after a deadly church siege by a group of militants on Sunday left 58 dead and scores more wounded. There have been mass protests in Baghdad over the deaths.

It is estimated that more than 1 million Christians have been forced to flee the country because of sectarian violence.Andrew Gilligan, a journalist from the Sunday Telegraph, questions whether Iraqi security forces are capable of dealing with the insurgents.“Clearly one of the main reasons so many died in this hostage situation was because the Iraqi security forces started a fire inside the church,” he told RT. “It’s not clear how many of those hostages were killed by Iraqi bullets and how many by the hostage-takers’ bullets. And that is one of the serious questions that probably will never be fully cleared up. And there’s a question mark about how competent the Iraqi forces are when it comes to dealing with situations like this tactically.”