Church martyrs volleyball championship wrapped up

NINEWA / IraqiNews.com: An open volleyball championship that took place north of Mosul city to commemorate the people killed in an attack on Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad‘s al-Karrada district, wrapped up in Bushiqa Sports Club on Saturday night, according to a priest on Sunday. “Bushiqa Sports Club organized the open volleyball championship in cooperation with the Zeitun Club under the slogan Martyrs’ Blood is the Seed of Life,” Father Rizqallah from Virgin Mary Church in Bushiqa, (12 km) east of Mosul, told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The championship came in tribute over the martyrs of Lady of Salvation Church to stress that Christians will stay in Iraq and will never leave it because they are original inhabitants of the country,” Father Rizqallah said. “Acts of violence will not undermine the Iraqi Christians or force them to leave Iraq because they are an original part of it,” he asserted. At least six teams participated in the four-day championship, attended by clerics, local officials and sportsmen, he said, adding that the championship was won by al-Mahabba in the final game against al-Zeitun. A group of al-Qaeda armed men had stormed Our Lady of Salvation Church in Karrada on November 1, 2010 took more than 100 people attending the Sunday mass hostage before the Iraqi forces stormed the church, leaving dozens killed or wounded. Mosul, the capital city of the violence-stricken province of Ninewa, lies 405 km north of Baghdad. SKH/SR 154