attacks killed dozens of people, leaving behind shocked civilians including Iraqi Christians who narrowly survived the bombings.
Twelve foreign U.N. staff members in the Iraqi capital were reportedly withdrawn, following Monday’s attack at the Iraq headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross that also seriously damaged the nearby Baghdad Seventh-day Adventist Church. Windows, which were a characteristic feature of the worship hall, sustained considerable damage and will be covered up with plywood to secure the building.
"Our office staff were already at work in the building when the bomb went off at around 8:30 a.m. on Monday morning," the Adventist News Network (ANN) quoted Basim Fargo, secretary-treasurer of the Adventist Church in Iraq, as saying.
No one was seriously injured "as the blinds on some windows shielded staff from serious injuries as the glass shattered," Fargo added.
Earlier two Adventist church members escaped death after being caught in a cross-fire as they were driving to weekly worship services. "The two abandoned their car in fear for their lives by climbing through the rear window after bullets smashed through the windshield of their car," ANN reported, quoting church sources.
CONCERN
The latest bombings have added to concern among Christians about ongoing violence directed against them and the international coalition forces, BosNewsLife learned. Believers have told BosNewsLife they rush to church services amid ongoing shootings and Muslim extremism.
However "all Iraqis are suffering, Muslims and Christians and it is difficult to go on streets after eight p.m. (because) always there is (a) threat," noted Raffi Karakashian, editor of one of the first post war Christian newspapers known as Norayek or "New Dawn."
There is a threat "in markets to be robbed in schools to be kidnapped (and) in working place to be bombed," he wrote BosNewsLife. "They bombed us twice already and there is threat for the third time," said Karakashian, an Armenian Christian who also works for the U.N.
VOLATILE
"If you look at the events over the past few days, the situation is very volatile," added U.N. spokesman Stefan Dujarrac, explaining the decision to, at least temporarily, withdraw international workers from the Iraqi capital.
"We’ve asked our staff in Baghdad to come out temporarily for consultations," he said, "with a team from headquarters to look at the future of operations, in particularly security arrangements that we would need to take to operate in Iraq." 22 people were killed in an attack at the U.N. Baghdad headquarters in August.
Spokesman Dujarrac stressed about 30 foreign staff will remain, most of them in northern Iraq, where security conditions are considered better, the Voice of America (VOA) reported. Earlier the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it too will temporarily relocate most of its foreign from Iraq to Amman, Jordan.
PRESSURE
Their withdrawal was expected to put additional pressure on Iraqi and foreign Christians involved in humanitarian aid projects and leaders of the growing number of churches, as they are serving needy Iraqis.
At the bomb damaged Baghdad Seventh-day Adventist Church, additional workers were rushed in to make sure that church services would resume by Sunday, ANN reported. About 200 people attend worship services at the church, one of four Adventist congregations in Iraq, each week.
Doors and windows on the side facing the attacked Red Cross headquarters, as well as the front entrance of the church, sustained the heaviest damage, church sources reported. "Some internal door frames had also been dislodged from the walls by the force of the blast. Shattered glass covered the entire floor of the worship hall following the explosion," ANN said.
ENGLAND
Fargo added that the ornate stained glass windows, which were a characteristic feature of the worship hall, sustained considerable damage and will be covered up with plywood to secure the building.
Lead for these window frames had been imported from England when construction of what many regard as the most beautiful Adventist church in the Middle East was completed in 1962, ANN reported.
"Until today, our church had remained unscathed by the Iran-Iraq war and the two Gulf wars," Fargo was quoted saying, as his staff prepared to continue amid ongoing bloodshed and violence.
"WONDERFUL"
Yet Pastor Ghassan Thomas of the Evangelical Alliance Church in Baghdad told ANS recently that Iraq was in some ways experiencing a "wonderful" time amid the chaos. "Because the people need Jesus Christ at this time,." he said.
"It’s the perfect time to speak about Jesus Christ. They (the Iraqis) have nothing now, their heart is empty. So they need to learn how to obey God and how to be a Christian man or woman." He stressed that faith will be needed to overcome hardship and poverty in the mainly Muslim country.
