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Cars Explode Outside Baghdad Churches; 2 Dead

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  • Cars Explode Outside Baghdad Churches; 2 Dead

    Reuters
    Aug 1 2004

    Cars Explode Outside Baghdad Churches; 2 Dead

    BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Car bombs exploded outside two Christian churches
    in central Baghdad Sunday, killing at least two people, wounding
    several more and damaging cars and buildings.
    A security source in Baghdad said they were suicide attacks.

    The first blast occurred outside an Armenian church in the Karrada
    district of Baghdad, which is heavily populated with Christians, and
    sent thick clouds of black smoke billowing into the sky over the
    city.

    The second blast happened about 15 minutes later outside an Assyrian
    church in the same area, rattling windows and sending a loud boom
    reverberating across the neighborhood.

    An ambulance driver told Reuters at least two people were killed in
    the second explosion and several more were wounded.

    The first blast blew out the stained glass windows of the church,
    scattered pieces of hot metal across a wide area and left the burning
    wreckage of at least three cars in its wake. "There was a
    booby-trapped car, it exploded," said policeman Geilan Wahoudi at the
    scene of the first explosion.

    The U.S. military said it had found the shell of a mortar near that
    blast, which caused several injuries but is not believed to have
    killed anyone.

    The bomb appeared to detonate near a generator, which may have caused
    more of a conflagration, the police said.

    There are an estimated 800,000 Christians in Iraq, most of them
    living in Baghdad.

    In recent weeks there has been a string of attacks on alcohol sellers
    throughout Iraq, the vast majority of whom are Christians of either
    the Assyrian, Chaldean or Armenian denominations.
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