IRAQ: Iraqi Christians hold funeral for victims of bomb attack in Baghdad

Record ID: 352208

  • Title: IRAQ: Iraqi Christians hold funeral for victims of bomb attack in Baghdad
  • Date: 1st January 2011
  • Summary: COFFIN BEING CARRIED AND PUT DOWN IN CHURCH WOODEN COFFIN IN FRONT OF ALTAR MOURNERS CARRYING ANOTHER COFFIN INTO CHURCH MOURNERS RESTING SECOND COFFIN BEFORE ALTAR STATUE OF JESUS CHRIST MOURNERS PRAYING DURING FUNERAL PROCESSION / COFFINS WOODEN COFFINS/ MOURNERS PRAYING AT BACKGROUND VARIOUS OF WOMEN ATTENDING FUNERAL PROCESSION MOURNERS PRAYING AND READING HOLY
  • Embargoed: 16th January 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq, Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA4Q6TTZ2IHYD6XL99SWEN0Q5CZ
  • Story Text: Relatives and mourners attend funeral of Christian victims killed in bomb attacks in Baghdad, which have re-ignited Christians' concerns about their safety in the Muslim-dominated country.
    Relatives and a handful of mourners attended on Friday (December 31) the funeral of two Christian victims killed in bombing attacks in Baghdad late on Thursday (December 30).
    The attacks have re-ignited debate about the safety of Christians living in Muslim-dominated Iraq. Many Christians have already fled the country after a spate of attacks over the past few years.
    Mourners who attended the funeral procession prayed to bring the peace to the victims' souls.
    Two people were killed and at least 16 wounded in a series of bomb attacks on Thursday on the homes of Christians in Baghdad, security sources said.
    The blasts occurred after al-Qaeda-linked militants threatened to step up attacks on Iraqi Christians during the Christmas period, two months after 52 people were killed when gunmen stormed a Syrian Catholic cathedral in Baghdad.
    An Interior Ministry source and police sources said up to 10 explosions targeted Christians in Baghdad. In the worst attack, two people thought to be Christians were killed in a blast in the Ghadir district of eastern Baghdad.
    Major General Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for the Baghdad operations command, put the toll at one dead - denying the victim was a Christian, and six wounded. He said two other bombs were defused before they exploded.
    Some 1,000 Christian families, or 6,000 people, have fled to Iraq's northern Kurdish region, or to regional countries, since the October 31 assault on the cathedral, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said earlier this month.
    Iraq's Christians once numbered about 1.5 million but are now believed to have fallen to less than 850,000 out of a population estimated at 30 million people.
    In its latest threat, the Islamic State of Iraq, the local affiliate of al-Qaeda, said Iraqi Christians risked further attacks unless they pressured the Christian church in Egypt to release a group of people it said the church was holding after they had converted to Islam.
    Iraqi Christian leaders say they fear Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda wants to drive them out of the country.
    The vast majority of the tens of thousands of civilians killed in violence since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion have been Muslim.
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