Blasts Strike Five Baghdad Churches

There were five explosions caused by improvised bombs near to these churches," Colonel Adnan Abdelrahman, an Iraqi interior ministry spokesman, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

In an apparently coordinated strike against Iraq’s Christian community, the church of Saint Joseph in the west of the Iraqi capital was hit at about 4:00 am (0100 GMT), the spokesman said.

Twenty minutes later, another blast ripped through the streets at another Saint Joseph church, in Dora, southern Baghdad. After another 20 minutes, Saint Paul’s church was struck in the same area.

At 4:50 am, the Orthodox Church in the central district of Karrada was rocked by a blast and a fifth occurred about an hour later at Saint Thomas church in Mansour to the west.

"The buildings were damaged but no one was hurt," he said.

The violence resumed hours later when a mortar round was fired into a car park between a hotel and Saint George’s Anglican church, witnesses said.

"There were no injuries," said Tassin Ali, a security guard who had been sitting at the front gate to the hotel.

The mortar round struck directly opposite the church but it was unclear whether it had been the target, an AFP reporter said.

About five cars were damaged in the blast.

Iraq’s Christian community has been targeted in the unrest that has swept Iraq following last year’s US-led invasion.

At the start of August, four attacks against Christian targets in Baghdad and two others in Mosul left 10 people dead and 50 injured.

Iraqi Muslim leaders strongly condemned the string of blasts as an “inhumane” bid to disrupt Iraq’s national unity.

Under Shari `ah (Islamic law), non-Muslims shall enjoy special rights and protection.

Islam makes it clear that Muslims are not allowed under any circumstances to burn holy places or books of non-Muslims or to abuse them

Christians account for about three percent of the population of Iraq (around 800,000 people), where attempts to provoke conflict have mainly focused on Sunni Muslims and members of the Shiite Muslim majority.

In March, coordinated bombings during a Shiite religious ceremony killed more than 180 in Baghdad and Karbala.