| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| Bombs target Iraqi Christians, Shiites |
| 2009-12-24 |
| 23 December 2009 BAGHDAD — Bombs targeted Iraqi Christians and Shiite Muslims Wednesday, killing at least seven people and wounding about three dozen before coinciding religious observances that will take place under heavy guard. Insurgents have routinely targeted Shiites and Christians in an attempt to undermine the country’s security gains and its Shiite-dominated government. Security forces in recent days have been concerned that the Shiite holy observances known as Ashoura and Christmas gatherings would be targeted by large-scale attacks. Ashoura marks the seventh-century death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein. In the first of Wednesday’s attacks, a bomb targeted a historic church in the northern city of Mosul a day before Christmas Eve services, killing two people and wounding five. “Instead of performing Christmas Mass in this church, we will be busy removing rubble and debris,” Hazim Ragheed, a priest at the church, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. The bomb was hidden under sacks of baking flour in a handcart left 15 yards (meters) from the Mar Toma Church, or the Church of St. Thomas, a police officer said. The officer said the two men killed were Muslims and that five other people were injured. A hospital official confirmed the casualties. The blast damaged the wooden doors, windows, some furniture and one of the walls of the church, which is more than 1,200 years old, Ragheed said. Services will be moved out of the church, but Ragheed did not say where they would be held. “We demand that the government put an end to these repeated attacks,” Ragheed said. The blast occurred in an area where streets have been closed to cars and trucks to protect Mosul’s dwindling Christian population. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 Well, the Shiites have militias to fight back while the Christians are defenseless. |
| Posted by: American Delight 2009-12-24 07:29 |