Baghdad bombings target Christians again
A wave of bombings targeting Baghdad’s Christian community killed at least four people and wounded 19 today less than two weeks after a siege at a Baghdad church left scores dead.
At least 11 roadside bombs detonated within an hour of each other in three predominantly Christian areas of central Baghdad.
Four of the blasts hit houses belonging to Christians, and two mortar rounds also struck Christian enclaves of the predominantly Sunni n
The violence underlines the threat to Iraq’s minority Christian community still in shock after the massacre at a Catholic cathedral last week that left 58 people dead. Al Qaida claimed responsibility for that attack and threatened more violence against Christians.
Today’s attacks come after a similar series of bombings yesterday that hit three empty houses belonging to Christians in western Baghdad. No one was wounded in those.
Younadem Kana, a Christian member of the Iraqi parliament, condemned the violence and blamed police and military for failing to protect the Christian community despite boosting security measures at churches around the capital.
“These attacks are not targeting only Christians, but also the government that has promised to protect the Christians,” he said. He added that the bombings exposed “grave flaws in the structure and the work of Iraq’s security forces.”
The country’s political leaders met today for the third consecutive day for talks focused on the formation of a new government.
Since the March 7 vote, Iraqi politicians have failed to agree on a government that would include the Sunni-backed coalition led by Ayad Allawi, which narrowly defeated Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite-dominated bloc at the polls.
At stake is whether Iraq has an inclusive government of both the majority Shiites and the minority Sunnis or a Shiite-dominated government with the Sunnis largely in opposition – a recipe that many worry will turn the country back to the sectarian violence of a few years ago.
Even for a nation used to daily violence after years of war, the killings in Baghdad’s main Catholic church of Our Lady of Salvation at the hands of Islamic militants shocked Iraqis.
It was the worst attack against the country’s Christian minority since the 2003 invasion unleashed fierce sectarian fighting between Iraq’s Muslim Shiite and Sunni militias that killed tens of thousands of civilians.
Grieving and afraid, many Iraqi Christians were saying after the church assault during the November 1 Sunday Mass that they may join what Catholic officials estimate is more than a million of their brethren who have fled the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
