Iraq Church Blasts Denounced

Chief of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq Abdel Aziz Al-Hakim said such heinous crimes destabilize the country.

He told Aljazeera satellite channel that such bombings are aimed at pitting Muslims against Christians.

Zarqawi Blamed

Iraq’s government on Monday blamed Al-Zarqawi for the grisly bombings.

"There is no shadow of a doubt that this bears the blueprint of Zarqawi," National Security Adviser Mowaffaq Al-Rubaie told Reuters news agency.

"Zarqawi and his extremists are basically trying to drive a wedge between Muslims and Christians in Iraq. It’s clear they want to drive Christians out of the country," he added.

The Jordanian-born militant has claimed responsibility for many major car bombings in Iraq as well as the killing of foreign hostages since Saddam Hussein was ousted last year.

Rubaie said Iraq’s national security council would hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the blasts.

Meanwhile, The Vatican has also condemned the blasts — the first attacks on churches during the 15-month US occupation — echoing same concerns among Muslim leaders that they aimed to inflame religious tensions.

"It is terrible and worrying because it is the first time that Christian churches are being targeted in Iraq," Vatican deputy spokesman Father Ciro Benedettini told Reuters news agency.

Sunday Services

The coordinated car bombings were timed for Sunday evening services in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul.

Car bombs exploded outside around five churches, killing at least 15 people and wounding many more.

An Interior Ministry source told Reuters there had been four blasts at churches in Baghdad and two in Mosul.

In the deadliest attack, a car bomber drove into the car park of a Chaldean church in southern Baghdad before detonating his vehicle, killing at least 12 people as worshippers left the building, witnesses said.

A US military spokesman said three of the four attacks in Baghdad were known to be car bombings.

An explosion at the Armenian church in Baghdad shattered stained glass windows and hurled chunks of hot metal. Another bomb exploded 15 minutes later at a nearby Assyrian church.

"Worshippers were inside the church and during the service a bomb went off," said Shakib Moussa Jibrail, a Christian.

An ambulance driver told Reuters that two people were killed in the explosion at the Assyrian church and several wounded.

"Those are terrorist acts against the Iraqi people and against Iraq, and we’re going to finish them (the terrorists)," Interior Minister Falah Al-Naqib told reporters at the church.

In Mosul, officials said at least one person was killed in a blast at a church and 15 wounded.

The US military said the attackers fired a rocket at the Mar Polis Catholic Church before detonating a car bomb and put the toll from the attack at one dead and seven wounded.

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.