IRAQ: MORE THAN A DOZEN PEOPLE KILLED AFTER SEVERAL CAR BOMBS EXPLODE OUTSIDE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN BAGHDAD

Record ID: 358630

  • Title: IRAQ: MORE THAN A DOZEN PEOPLE KILLED AFTER SEVERAL CAR BOMBS EXPLODE OUTSIDE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN BAGHDAD
  • Date: 1st August 2004
  • Summary: (EU) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (AUGUST 1, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. GV: SMOKE FROM EXPLOSION AT ARMENIAN CHURCH RISING ABOVE CITY SKY 0.09 2. CLOSER VIEW: BLACK CLOUD OF SMOKE 0.17 3. GROUND LEVEL OF EMERGENCY VEHICLE RACING DOWN STREET TOWARDS SITE OF EXPLOSION AT ARMENIAN CHURCH, BLACK CLOUD OF SMOKE RISING FROM BLAST SITE 0.24 4. SV/CU: GROUND LEVE
  • Embargoed: 16th August 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA5B6Z9QVWY2D0QCRUGJEL875UC
  • Story Text: Bomb blasts at Iraqi churches kill at least 15.



    Car bombs exploded outside at least five Christian
    churches in Iraq on Sunday (August 1), killing more than a
    dozen people and wounding many more in an apparently
    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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