January 29, killing at least three Iraqis and wounding nine in what police and church officials described as a coordinated spree of attacks.
The most serious incident occurred in the northern city of Kirkuk where Iraqi police officials said a vehicle packed with explosives was detonated at 1430 UTC outside the ‘Church Of the Virgin’ killing three people and injuring one. Just 15 minutes earlier a car bomb exploded outside another Orthodox church in Kirkuk, injuring at least 6 people, investigators said.
Both cars were reportedly detonated with a remote control device. Meanwhile in Baghdad three car bombs exploded outside two churches and nearby the Vatican Embassy.
One car bomb exploded outside an Anglican church without causing injuries, while another one hit the Disciples of St. Peters and St. Paul Orthodox Church, wounding two people police said. A 5th car bomb exploded nearby the Vatican Embassy building in Eastern Baghdad.
SEVERAL EXPLOSIONS
"We had in Baghdad this afternoon a few explosions, including one close to the Apostolic Nuncio mission," said Fernando Filoni, who is Apostolic Nuncio in Iraq, the Vatican’s title for an ambassador. "We don’t know exactly the reason although we understand that this explosions are aimed at creating chaos in the country," he told Vatican Radio monitored by BosNewsLife.
"Not only the Christians are at this moment in a difficult time. All Iraqis are [facing difficulties], not only because of the explosions but in general the situation is not so good," he added.
Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel Delly, who was about to arrive at one of the targeted Baghdad churches before the blast, also condemned the attack.” We condemn this attack as all the world does and we pray for these people so that their hearts will be enlightened," he told reporters.
WIDESPREAD ATTACKS
The latest attacks underscored what human rights watchers describe as "widespread attacks" by Islamic militants against Iraq’s Christian minority. Church and religious rights organizations such as Barnabas Fund have told BosNewsLife there are ongoing kidnappings and attacks against individual Christians, including women who refuse to wear an Islamic veil.
Christian owners of liquor shops have also been attacked by Islamic militants, some of them were killed, BosNewsLife learned. Sunday’s violence came shortly after Iraqi authorities adjourned the trial of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein until at least Wednesday as Saddam, some co-defendants and his angry lawyers stormed out of court Sunday, January 29.
Lawyers said they were as the new, apparently Kurdish, presiding judge "seemed bias" and expelled Saddam’s half brother, co-defendant Barzan al-Tikriti. In other violence Sunday, a suicide car bomber killed four Iraqi soldiers near Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit. Another insurgent attack killed 10 people south of Baghdad, the Voice Of America (VOA) reported.
Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants are accused of killing 148 people in the town of Dujail after a failed attempt to assassinate the dictator there in 1982.
AZIZ RELEASED?
The family of co-defendant and former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz has meanwhile asked Pope Benedict XVI to intervene with American authorities so the detainee can be released to receive medical care abroad, news reports said. Aziz’s son, Ziad Aziz, told The Associated Press (AP) that his father’s lawyers had sent a letter addressed to the pope to the Vatican’s embassy in Baghdad.
"My father was the only Christian member of the former Iraqi government. He met with the ex-pope on many occasions," the younger Aziz said in a telephone interview with AP. "In these circumstances, they must help him, not as a Christian Iraqi but as a human being."
The Vatican declined to comment. Christians comprise roughly three percent of the 26-million strong population, according to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), but church groups suggest the figure may be higher as many have fled the region because of the violence.(With BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos and reports from Iraq).
