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  • Christians fearful after attacks

    Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PA
    Aug 2 2004

    Christians fearful after attacks

    By Pamela Constable
    The Washington Post
    Monday, August 2, 2004


    BAGHDAD -- Car bombs exploded outside at least five Christian
    churches in two Iraqi cities during Sunday evening services in
    coordinated attacks that sent terrified and bleeding worshippers
    fleeing into the streets as stained-glass windows shattered and
    flames engulfed the buildings. More than a dozen people were killed
    and scores injured in the assaults, the first mass violence against
    minority Christians who have long coexisted peacefully with Iraqi
    Muslims.
    The blasts struck four churches in Baghdad and at least one in the
    northern city of Mosul within 90 minutes as night fell. Black smoke
    billowed into the air over the darkening capital. Ambulances ferried
    victims to hospitals and firefighters hosed flaming buildings and
    cars, while police fired into the air and U.S. troops tried to
    maintain order as people milled angrily in the affected
    neighborhoods.

    "We were lining up for communion, the holiest moment in the Mass.
    Suddenly the explosion happened, and glass rained down from the
    windows," said a weeping, middle-aged woman at the bedside of her
    wounded elderly mother in Ibin Nafeas Hospital. "Those who did this
    are without religion," added the woman, who did not want to give her
    name. "This is not Muslims. Muslims don't do this to their brothers."

    Witnesses and victims from three of the bombed churches in Baghdad
    expressed similar sentiments, blaming the attacks on extremists
    seeking to sow division between Christians and majority Muslims.

    "This is God's house. Those who did this may think they will go to
    heaven, but they will go to hell," said Reemon Merghi, 24, a
    Christian who witnessed the blast at an Armenian church from his
    apartment nearby. "Maybe they think they are going to make Muslims
    and Christians fight each other, but we are like one family living in
    one house."

    The first bomb in Baghdad exploded about 6:30 p.m. outside an
    Armenian Catholic church in the Karrada district, shortly after
    evening Mass had begun. As people poured outside in panic and police
    and rescue crews raced to the scene, a second blast detonated about
    20 minutes later outside an Assyrian Catholic church, Lady of
    Salvation, about a half-mile away.

    Within the hour, two more bombs had exploded next to a Chaldean
    Christian church in the Doura neighborhood in southwest Baghdad and
    outside a fourth church, Father Ilyas, in the New Baghdad district.

    Police said the four blasts appeared to have come from booby-trapped
    cars and were not suicide bombs. However, Reuters news service quoted
    a U.S. military spokesman as saying that three of the four attacks in
    Baghdad were known to be suicide car bombings.

    In Mosul, about 220 miles north, officials said a car bomb exploded
    next to the Father Bolus Church, a Chaldean Christian congregation,
    as worshippers were leaving evening Mass, damaging the building and a
    number of cars. They said rocket-propelled grenades were also fired
    at the church. There were unconfirmed reports of a blast at a second
    Mosul church. No details were available.

    Before yesterday's bombings, there had been a number of bomb attacks
    against Christian-owned shops that sell alcohol in Baghdad and other
    cities, but none against Christian places of worship. In January, a
    minibus carrying a group of Iraqi Christian women to work at a U.S.
    military base west of Baghdad was followed and attacked by gunmen,
    who killed several of the passengers.

    In a recent interview, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Baghdad, the
    Rev. Jean Benjamin Sleiman, said Christians in Iraq were becoming
    fearful of growing Islamic militancy since the fall of president
    Saddam Hussein last spring, and that some were trying to leave the
    country.

    "There is very real freedom," he said, "but we cannot enjoy it
    because of general insecurity, the high level of fanaticism and the
    belief of some Islamic leaders that Iraqi Christians are being
    assimilated into the coalition forces, who are perceived as
    Christians or even crusaders."

    There are an estimated 800,000 Christians in Iraq, about 3 percent of
    the population. Most are Chaldeans or Eastern rite Catholics who are
    independent from Rome but recognize the pope. There are also large
    communities of Armenian, Assyrian, Roman or Latin rite, Greek and
    Syriac Catholics, as well as some Protestant groups. In Baghdad
    alone, where most Christians live, there are at least 50 churches.

    Historically, Christians and Muslims have enjoyed peaceful relations
    in Iraq, and Saddam's government suppressed Islamic extremism while
    allowing Christians to worship. But in the 15 months since the
    U.S.-led invasion, militant Islamic groups have become active and
    organized. Young Iraqi Shiites have formed a militia, while Islamic
    militants with links to al-Qaida have assassinated officials,
    kidnapped foreigners and bombed police stations.

    Some distraught worshippers yesterday echoed Sleiman's concern that
    Iraqi Christians are being targeted because they represent a religion
    that Islamic extremists associate with the U.S.-led forces here.
    Recent terrorist attacks have focused on foreigners working with
    companies that supply U.S. military bases and on Iraqis who
    collaborate with U.S. authorities or join the Iraqi security forces.

    "I am really frightened," said Farah Isa, 30, a Christian who was
    hurrying her two small sons home past the Lady of Salvation church
    shortly after the bomb blast there. "Now these people are attacking
    us directly, and during the day. What will we do? What is our fault
    if the Americans are Christians? Do they consider us infidels? They
    have no religion."

    In other developments, earlier yesterday a suicide bomber blew up his
    Toyota Land Cruiser outside a police station in Mosul, killing at
    least five people and wounding 53, officials said.

    In Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle belonging to the
    BBC, killing three passersby and wounding the driver.
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