BAGHDAD (AP) – Al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq has threatened more attacks on Christians after a siege on a Baghdad church that left 64 people dead, linking the warning to claims that Egypt's Coptic Church is holding women captive for converting to Islam.

The Islamic State of Iraq, which has already claimed responsibility for Sunday's assault on a Catholic Church Mass in downtown Baghdad, said its deadline for Egypt's Copts to release the women had expired. As a result, it said its fighters would attack Christians wherever they can be reached, raising the prospect of violence against Christians across the Middle East.
“We will open upon them the doors of destruction and rivers of blood,” the insurgent group said in a statement posted late Tuesday on militant websites.
The Islamic State of Iraq is an umbrella group that includes Al-Qaeda in Iraq and other allied militant factions. It is unclear exactly what led the group to seize on arguments over conversion that have raised tension between Egypt's Muslims and its minority Coptic Christian community.