Christian community shaken following bombings

Members of the Christian community in Iraq said they were shocked and in fear following four separate bomb attacks on churches in the Iraqi capital on Sunday, killing 11 and wounding more than 50 others, according to media reports. Four explosions were detonated around 6:30 p.m. local time as church-goers were attending services in the capital, Baghdad. One bomb left a crater more than six feet deep. Explosions sent black smoke billowing into the air and shattered stained glass windows as bleeding church-goers ran to get away from the carnage. Iraqi police found an additional unexploded bomb of 15 mortar rounds near a fifth Baghdad church that they were able to detonate before it went off. Another person was killed and 11 others wounded when another bomb went off in front of a Catholic church in the northern city of Mosul about 400 kilometres north of Baghdad at around the same time. “I’m really angry and scared,” Wisam Sagman, 46, a Christian whose windows were blown out by a blast in front of the Armenian church in the Karrada district of Baghdad, told IRIN. “I expected something would happen, but I tried not to think about it.” The explosion tore apart a six-foot high cement wall in front of Sagman’s house. Two burned-out cars left by the explosion were still smouldering in the street. “We had many threats on Easter, so we curtailed our celebrations then,” Sameer Mehti, 30, Sagman’s brother-in-law, told IRIN. “But we don’t understand why this was done now. It is something terrifying.” It was the first coordinated attack against Iraq's 750,000-member Christian population in the 15 months since the insurgency began. However, Christian liquor store owners and others have been bombed in the past, especially in the southern port city of Basra. Religion-affiliated aid agencies condemned the act but vowed to continue work in the country plagued with violence. Edmond Adam, interim director of the Middle East Council of Churches aid agency, looked visibly shaken by the previous day's attack. But as workers chipped broken glass out of a frame in the front window that faces the church across the street, Adam insisted he would continue his work. “We cannot stop, because this is our faith as (Christian) churches in the Middle East,” Adam told IRIN. “We will not give up.” A woman walking by the rubble outside the Syrian Catholic Church near the Armenian church said she could not understand who would coordinate such attacks. “I don’t know who can stand behind this. It’s bad to do such things when so many people are killed,” Hilana Jousif, 55, told IRIN. Jousif works at a nearby Christian-run hospital. At Islamic Relief, a British-based aid agency, Mohammed Makki Fathi, operations manager, told IRIN he hoped things would get better soon. “This is the political situation,” Fathi said. “I feel sorry about it. This is not a good situation for us.” Peter Dula, a worker at the US-based Mennonite Central Committee, which works with local aid agencies on various programmes, told IRIN he was committed to staying in Iraq, although it was too soon to tell if he would be allowed to. “I wouldn’t be surprised at all if my headquarters asked me to leave,” Dula said. Explosions hit churches in two predominantly Christian neighbourhoods in central Baghdad - two in Karrada, one in Daura and one in New Baghdad. The Armenian church and the Catholic church are only about 500 metres apart in the Karrada neighbourhood. US military officials said the attacks did not appear to be suicide bombings. Christians are seen as well-to-do members of society. The attacks triggered fears that Christians may be targeted as collaborators with American forces as many speak English too. “Christians are like the Jews of Iraq,” an Iraqi-American businessman who runs a security firm and an information technology business used by foreign companies, told IRIN. He declined to be named for security reasons. "Iraqi police provided a professional, rapid response to each of these attacks," Lt Col James Hutton, public affairs office for the 1st Cavalry Division US military, said in a press statement. Hutton condemned insurgent activity targeting Iraqi civilians. "Iraq's movement to a better future will not be undermined by the cowards who built these weapons to attack innocent Iraqi citizens," he maintained.