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Iraq blames al-Zarqawi for bombing

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  • Iraq blames al-Zarqawi for bombing

    Taipei Times

    Iraq blames al-Zarqawi for bombing

    RELIGIOUS 'WEDGE': The Jordanian-born militant was trying to force
    Christians out of the country, officials said, while a Turkish hostage was
    reportedly executed

    REUTERS , BAGHDAD
    Tuesday, Aug 03, 2004,Page 6

    A US soldier stands guard yesterday in front of a Christian Syriac church in
    Baghdad which was targeted on Sunday by a suicide car bomb.
    PHOTO: AFP
    The Iraqi government yesterday blamed al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for
    a series of church bombings that killed at least 11 people, saying the aim
    was to spark religious strife and drive Christians out of the country.

    Muslim leaders condemned the car bombings that were timed for Sunday evening
    services in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul. The attacks were the
    first on churches of the minority Christian community since the start of a
    15-month insurgency.

    "There is no shadow of a doubt that this bears the blueprint of Zarqawi,"
    said national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie.

    "Zarqawi and his extremists are basically trying to drive a wedge between
    Muslims and Christians in Iraq. It's clear they want to drive Christians out
    of the country," he said.

    The Jordanian-born militant has claimed responsibility for a series of major
    car bombings in Iraq since former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was ousted
    last year as well as the killing of foreign hostages.

    An Islamist Web site yesterday showed photographs of what it said was the
    killing of a Turkish hostage by a group linked to Zarqawi. But a Somali held
    by militants also linked to Zarqawi is to be freed after his Kuwaiti
    employer agreed to halt operations in the country, alJazeera television
    said.

    Rubaie said Iraq's national security council was to hold an emergency
    meeting yesterday to discuss the blasts that hit at least five churches in
    the country, including four in Baghdad.

    The bomb attacks near the four Baghdad churches killed 10 people and wounded
    more than 40, the US military said, adding the blasts occurred within a
    30-minute period.

    Witnesses and officials had said earlier that as many as 15 people had been
    killed, including at least one person killed by a bomb at a church in Mosul.

    The US statement gave no details of casualties from Mosul. It said Iraqi
    police had found and cleared an explosive device that contained 15 mortar
    rounds outside a fifth Baghdad church.

    Christians account for about 3 percent of the population of Iraq, where
    attempts to provoke conflict have mainly focused on Sunni Muslims and
    members of the Shiite Muslim majority, who were oppressed by Saddam.

    There are 800,000 Christians in Iraq, most of them in Baghdad. Several
    recent attacks have targeted alcohol sellers throughout Iraq, most of whom
    are Christians of either the Assyrian, Chaldean or Armenian denominations.

    Adnan al-Asadi, a senior member of the Shiite Dawa Islamic party, said
    Muslims shared the pain of the Christian community.

    "We reject these criminal acts which want to create religious and sectarian
    strife in Iraq," he said.

    "We do not differentiate between these acts which are in violation of
    religious and Islamic laws because the perpetrators of these acts ... are
    the same people who strike Iraqi mosques and centers for the internal
    security forces," he said.

    Iraqi Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin said the interim government of
    Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was trying its best to combat the insurgents and
    uproot their networks.

    "This shows there are no borders to the barbarity of the crimes of these
    terrorists," he said in response to the attacks. "No believer of any
    religion would do this."

    Parish priest Bashar Muntihorda, speaking outside a Chaldean church in
    Baghdad that was hit, said Christians were devastated.
    This story has been viewed 533 times.
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