Motives are unknown and many details are still sketchy in a coordinated attack on Iraqi Christians during evening services on August 1. At least five churches were attacked in Baghdad and Mosul. News agencies are reporting at least eleven people killed and dozens injured.
The first blast occurred outside an Armenian church in Baghdad as evening services were beginning. Stained glass windows were blown out as a car bomb exploded. Another bomb exploded minutes later outside a Syrian Catholic church about four hundred metres away, followed shortly by explosions at two other churches in the Iraqi capital. The most deadly attack was against a Chaldean church in the southern Baghdad neighbourhood of Doura where at least eight people are reported killed.
In the northern city of Mosul, a Catholic church was also attacked just as people were leaving the church. Again, a car bomb was used, but there are reports that rocket-powered hand grenades were also fired at the building.
Violent attacks have been common in Iraq since the occupation by the US-led coalition, but few of the attacks have been specifically targeted at Iraq's Christian community, described by an interior ministry spokesman as one of Iraq's most respected groups. A month ago, one Christian was injured when a grenade was thrown at a church in Mosul (click here for more details). There have also been isolated attacks against shops and Christian individuals.
Please pray for those injured and the families of those killed. Pray that these types of attacks will not escalate in Iraq. Pray for Iraqi Christians, that they will experience peace in the midst of this terrible storm. Pray that Iraq will soon find the peace for which the majority of people are longing.
For more information on persecution facing Christians in Iraq, click here.
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