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| Iraq |
| Deadly bombing hits Iraq church ahead of Christmas |
| 2009-12-24 |
| [Dawn] With Christmas just around the corner, a bomb attack on a church in the Iraqi city of Mosul killed a passerby and wounded six others in the sixth attack on Christians there in less than a month, police and a witness said. 'Around 11 am (0800 GMT), a handcart used to carry flour, left across the street from the Syrian Orthodox church of St Thomas, exploded and caused damage' to the building, witness Hamis Paulos said. 'A passerby was killed and six others wounded' in the attack, a police officer said. Father Faez Wadiha, whose own Syrian Orthodox Parish of the Very Pure Virgin was attacked a week ago, said 'words cannot describe what has happened. 'This is certainly a Christmas present for Mosul,' he said with irony, 'a message of congratulations why we are celebrating a feast of love and peace.' 'But we will pray in the streets, in homes, in shops. God is everywhere, not just in churches.' Father Wadiha's parish operates a school adjacent to the church, in central Mosul, and a bomb exploded there on December 15, killing an eight-day old girl and wounding 40 people, including five students. A second bomb struck the Syrian Catholic Church of the Annunciation in the north of the city, without causing any casualties. On November 26, a church and a convent were bombed, with both targets severely damaged but without any casualties, religious leaders said. One of the attacks hit the St Theresa Convent of Dominican nuns in the western Jadida (New Mosul) district, said the chief representative of the Dominican order in Iraq, Father Yousif Thomas Mirkis. 'These attacks are aimed at forcing Christians to leave the country,' he told AFP, noting that the bomb had been placed inside the convent grounds and caused damage to the building. Another bomb struck the Church of St Ephrem in the same Mosul district, causing major damage to the Chaldean place of worship, Patriarchal Vicar George Basman said. And last week, a 30-year-old Christian, Zeid Majid Yussef, was gunned down as he walked from his parked car to his home. Last year, thousands of Christians fled Mosul in the face of violence that claimed the lives of 40 members of the community. Since the US-led invasion of 2003, hundreds of Iraqi Christians have been killed and several churches attacked. Around 800,000 Christians lived in Iraq at the time of the invasion, but their number has since shrunk by a third or more as members of the community have fled abroad, according to Christian leaders. Although violence has dropped dramatically across Iraq compared to last year, attacks remain common in Mosul and the capital Baghdad. |
| Posted by:Fred |