Iraq’s embattled Christian minority, Interior Ministry officials said. No casualties were reported in the church blasts, but at least one person died and several others were wounded when a mortar round exploded outside a nearby hospital, officials said.
There was also a rocket attack on a parking lot of a hotel used by foreign journalists, but apparently nobody was killed or injured in that attack.
Ministry Spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman told reporters that the initial blast hit the St. Joseph Church in the Nafaq Al-Shurta area.
The other churches hit were St. Jacob’s Church and St. George’s Church in the Doura neighborhood, the Church of Rome in the Karrada neighborhood and St. Thomas Church in the Mansour area, the spokesman and news reports said.
SMOULDERING WOOD
"The wood is still of the St. George’s Church is still smoldering," the Cable News Network quoted a camera crew as saying. The attacks have been linked to Muslim militants and remnants from the old Saddam Hussein regime, who have accused Christians of supporting the United States-led military coalition in Iraq.
Christians have been working for the coalition as translators or in other position, as well as within ministries such as the strategic Ministry of Oil. In addition Christians have been attacked by Muslim extremists because of their involvement in liquor stores, BosNewsLife learned.
Saturday’s blasts follow other deadly attacks against Iraq’s estimated 750,000 Christians. In August, coordinated attacks hit four churches in Baghdad and one in Mosul, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens more.
MORE KIDNAPPINGS
In addition Christians have also increasingly been singled out for kidnappings. Although several Senior Muslim leaders have condemned the violence, Christian human rights groups say thousands of Christians have already fled the troubled nation in recent months. Many of them have arrived in neighboring Jordan and Syria.
Iraq’s government has said it believes that most Christians will return when and if the security situation improves. There was little sign of that Saturday, as the U.S. military said an American soldier died of wounds suffered Friday, October 15, in a car bomb attack in the northern city of Mosul, a symbol of Iraq’s Christian civilization.
Mosul succeeded the ancient city of Nineveh, where the Bible claims Prophet Jonah first brought the message of repentance.
