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=> 15 killed in Iraqi church blasts
| 15 killed in Iraqi church blasts |
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- Sunday, August 1 2004, 23:25:17 (CEST) from  Australia -  Windows XP -  Internet ExplorerWebsite: Website title: |
Sun 1 August, 2004 21:32 By Edmund Blair and Maher al-Thanoon BAGHDAD/MOSUL (Reuters) - Car bombs have exploded outside at least five Christian churches in Iraq, killing more than a dozen people and wounding many more in an apparently coordinated attack timed to coincide with evening prayers. "We are expecting a huge number of casualties," an Interior Ministry source told Reuters on Sunday, saying there had been four blasts at churches in Baghdad and two in the northern city of Mosul. Police in Mosul said they knew of just one church attack there. The Vatican condemned the blasts -- the first attacks on churches during the 15-month insurgency -- echoing concerns among Iraqis that they aimed to inflame religious tensions. In the deadliest attack, a suicide car bomber drove into the car park of a Chaldean church in southern Baghdad before detonating his vehicle, killing at least 12 people as worshippers left the building, witnesses said. The U.S. military has warned that guerrillas opposed to the presence of more 160,000 foreign troops may try to deepen divisions between the country's diverse religious communities in their campaign to destabilise Iraq. "It is terrible and worrying because it is the first time that Christian churches are being targeted in Iraq," said Vatican deputy spokesman Father Ciro Benedettini. A U.S. military spokesman said three of the four attacks in Baghdad were known to be suicide car bombings. An explosion at the Armenian church in Baghdad shattered stained glass windows and hurled chunks of hot metal. Another bomb exploded 15 minutes later at a nearby Assyrian church. "Worshippers were inside the church and during the service a bomb went off," said Shakib Moussa Jibrail, a Christian. An ambulance driver told Reuters that two people were killed in the explosion at the Assyrian church and several wounded. U.S. Colonel Mike Murray of the 1st Cavalry Division said at least 50 people had been wounded at the church, some seriously. "Those are terrorist acts against the Iraqi people and against Iraq, and we're going to finish them (the terrorists)," Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib told reporters at the church. In Mosul, officials said at least one person was killed in a blast at a church and 15 wounded. The U.S. military said the attackers fired a rocket at the Mar Polis Catholic Church before detonating a car bomb and put the toll from the attack at one dead and seven wounded. There are about 800,000 Christians in Iraq, most of them in Baghdad. Several recent attacks have targeted alcohol sellers throughout Iraq, most of whom are Christians of either the Assyrian, Chaldean or Armenian denominations. Christians account for about three percent of the population of Iraq, where attempts to provoke conflict have mainly focused on Sunni Muslims and members of the Shi'ite Muslim majority, who were oppressed by ousted dictator Saddam Hussein. The U.S. military says a computer disk captured earlier this year contained a letter from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant allied to al Qaeda, calling for attacks on Iraqi Shi'ites to try to spark sectarian conflict in Iraq. In March, coordinated suicide bombings during a Shi'ite religious ceremony killed more than 170 in Baghdad and Kerbala. BOMBINGS IN MOSUL Earlier on Sunday, a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle outside a police station in Mosul, killing at least five and wounding 53 in the latest strike against Iraqi security forces. Witnesses said the Toyota Landcruiser raced towards a police checkpoint as guards screamed at the driver to stop. When he did not, they opened fire, killing him. But the car ploughed on and detonated about 20 metres (60 feet) from the police station. Police said four of the five killed were police officers and the wounded were both civilians and police. Doctors said many of the wounded were badly hurt and the death toll could rise. Sunday's bombings came four days after an attack outside a police recruiting centre in Baquba, north of Baghdad, killed 70 people. Police are frequently targeted by guerrillas who regard them as collaborators with U.S. forces. The attacks followed another night of clashes between U.S. forces and guerrillas in the rebellious city of Falluja, west of Baghdad, in which at least 10 Iraqis died and 35 were wounded, a doctor at the main hospital said. FATE OF HOSTAGES UNCLEAR There were conflicting reports over the fate of three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian taken hostage in Iraq this month and threatened with execution. In Nairobi, Kenyan Foreign Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere told a news conference that guerrillas had released the seven hostages. But their Kuwaiti employers and an Iraqi mediator negotiating their release said they were still in captivity. Scores of hostages from two dozen countries have been seized by kidnappers in the last four months. Most have been freed but several have been executed -- at least four were beheaded. Iraqi commandos freed a Lebanese hostage on Sunday, a Lebanese Foreign Ministry source said, but there was no word on another Lebanese snatched along with a Syrian driver on Friday. A group linked to Zarqawi said it had also captured two Turkish drivers, and threatened to kill them. --------------------- |
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