- Title: IRAQ: CLEAR UP BEGINS OF CHURCHES ATTACKED BY CAR BOMBS IN BAGHDAD.
- Date: 2nd August 2004
- Summary: (W2) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (AUGUST 2, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. GV: SUN RISING IN BAGHDAD. (2 SHOTS) 0.13 2. WS: EXTERIOR OF CHALDEAN CHURCH. 0.18 3. CU: CLOSED DOORS OF CHURCH. 0.22 4. CU: CROSSES ON CHURCH DOORS. 0.27 5. VARIOUS: MAN SWEEPING SHARDS OF GLASS INSIDE CHURCH. (3 SHOTS) 0.45 6. CU: PICTURE OF JESUS DRAWN ON MIRROR BR
- Embargoed: 17th August 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA3JXE1QNLVL9F77KZZW2Q1QJSU
- Story Text: Daytime breaks as the clear-up of bombed churches
continues.
Car bomb attacks near four Christian churches in the
Iraqi capital Baghdad on Sunday evening killed 10 people
and wounded more than 40, the U.S. military said in a
statement on Monday.
The bombs seemed part of a co-ordinated attack timed to
coincide with evening prayers.
An Interior Ministry source told Reuters that a huge
number of casualties were expected adding that 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 at 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.
A U.S. military spokesman said three of the four
attacks in Baghdad were known to be suicide car bombings
and U.S. Army Colonel Mike Murray condemned the blasts.
"I don't know if it is a surprise, I think it is a step
down for the people who are doing this," said Murray.
"these people were doing nothing but going about their
daily lives. They were in the church for prayer when the
car bomb went off," he added.
An explosion at the Armenian church in Baghdad
shattered stained glass windows and hurled chunks of hot
metal.
Another bomb exploded about 15 minutes later outside
the nearby Assyrian church, where medics dragged a man from
a car, his arm almost torn off.
Iraqi Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said the
explosions were "an attack against Iraqis."
"We are going to finish them. Fortunately today we
have captured more than 20 terrorists, they were involved
in kidnapping and some killing process against Iraqis," he
said.
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.
In Mosul, officials said at least one person was killed
in a blast at a church and 15 wounded.
There are about 800,000 Christians in Iraq, most of
them in Baghdad. Several recent attacks have targeted
alcohol sellers throughout Iraq, the majority 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, co-ordinated suicide bombings during a
Shi'ite religious ceremony killed more than 170 in Baghdad
and Kerbala.
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