Suspected Car Bombs Explode Outside Baghdad Churches

[DoYouEverWonder]

Aug 1, 2004


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Suspected car bombs exploded outside two Baghdad churches Sunday, killing at least two people, the U.S. military and medics said.

The blasts destroyed cars and send plumes of black smoke into the sky.

The first suspected bomb detonated outside an Armenian church in a busy neighborhood of Baghdad populated by many Christians.

The second blast, outside another Christian church, killed two people, an ambulance driver said.

The U.S. military said it had found the shell of a mortar near the site of the first explosion.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040801/ts_nm/iraq_bomb_church_dc&e=5&ncid=578

[janx]

1. Now CNN is saying three--

three churches.

[lottie244]

21. Never forget, Iraq wasn't like this before the US invasion

How many even remember what Iraq was really like before Desert Storm?

[ink]

31. Iraq wasn't like this...........

No it wasn't.

Depending on which numbers you use, the Ba'athists executed on average between 32 and 43 Iraqi citizens per day for over thirty years. Find another reason to hate Bush. Hating him over the war of liberation in Iraq is a fools choice.

[mike1963]

32. I don't believe those numbers.

...

[DoYouEverWonder]

33. Show me the graves

Tony Blair admitted a couple of weeks ago that to date they have only found 5000 bodies. Bu$h killed more than that just in the first month of the war.

[Cha]

35. No, I hate fucking bush for this too... God DAmn lying son of

Ugly Son of a Bitch!

[leftchick]

36. fuzzy math....

bushco* has killed more people in 4 wars than Saddam could ever dream of. Now go watch faux.

[NickB79]

40. Link/citation for your facts, please?

And just to put things in perspective, we killed ~10,000 Iraqi civilians in the first month of bombings last year as we "shocked and awed" them to death. Thats actually a conservative figure; some place it to 25,000. Additionally, 5000 Iraqis have died since we took Baghdad, due to our inability to provide security in the country (a requirement of the Geneva Convention). So, in the 15 months we've been in Iraq, 15,000+ Iraqi civilians have died. Thats 33 per month, right in line with Saddam's purported numbers.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, it appears.

[Mr.Green93]

2. why are there christian Churches in a Muslim country?

Did we put them there as a provocation?

[raifield]

3. Iraq used to be secular

Iraq boasts, for a middle eastern country, a fairly diverse population. Christians are just one of many different religions in Iraq.

[CJCRANE]

27. Apart from that -

strictly speaking, under Islamic law, Christians and Jews are recognised as "people of the book" and should be allowed to follow their religions (from what I've read). Although obviously some extremists don't seem to have that interpretation.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. They've been there a long time

There is a christian population in Iraq and they were tolerated under Saddam. Terik Aziz was a christian.

[Zynx]

7. What was the sect of Catholic Aziz was?

He was some specific sect, but I don't remember what it was.

[TahitiNut]

19. Chaldean Catholic church

[madrchsod]

5. iraq was a secular society under saddam

christians and muslims got along fine and there were a few jewish synagogues. this has all changed since george blew apart the strutrue of the iraqi society .this blood is on the hands of george.

[James T. Kirk]

23. Why are there Christian churches there? Huh? Was that a joke?

There have been Christians in what is now Iraq long before the nation of Iraq was created.

[burrowowl]

43. These are various Catholic sects

that have been there since before Islam came to be, like the Copts in Eygpt.

[janx]

6. Now CNN is going back to saying it's two churches...

Things are such a mess over there.

[janx]

8. MULTIPLE bombs in both Baghdad and Mosul--

seem to be targetting churches.

[DS1]

9. Are they that suspect?

:eyes:

[mandyky]

10. CNN is now reporting a church bombing in Mosul

Iraq used to have quite a few Jews and Christians, even though it is primarliy Muslim.

[bemildred]

11. "Divide and rule". nt

[amandabeech]

12. This will enrage (even more) Bush and Ashcroft.

Bush will need a double dose of sedatives today. I have no idea what * will order as retaliation.

Truly, though, attacking people at worship is the lowest of the low. I hope that the Iraqis will turn in those who did this. I certainly hope that we have not done the same thing over there.

[burrowowl]

38. Bu$h won't care

They are Catholics. According to Xtian fundies, Catholics aren't Christians. Of course, where in the hell do they think they got Christianism from? Xtian fundies are something else.

[LibDemAlways]

13. I'm not surprised they are now

targeting Christians. Doesn't the chimp make a big point of calling himself a Christian? And the repukes are forever touting the lie that the US is a Christian nation.

This is one hell of a mess that chimpco has created. And the way things are going, it looks like they'll be leaving it to Kerry to clean up.

[huckleberry]

14. now 6 churches, huge casualties per Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5837010

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. This story just keeps getting worse

this sucks.

[Barrett808]

20. Maybe the insurgency is intent on driving out the missionaries n/t

[QC]

28. These churches are not missionary operations.

Christians have been in Iraq since long before it was Iraq, and long before Islam even existed, for that matter. The churches in the Middle East are the oldest in the world. In fact, it was the believers in Antioch, in what is now Syria, who were the first to be called Christians.

So the insurgency, in this case, is killing fellow Iraqis, not foreign missionaries.

[Barrett808]

39. Fair enough -- but will the insurgency see the distinction?

They may be painting with a very broad brush...

[Barrett808]

41. Bombs Sow Fear of More Horror for Iraq's Christians

Bombs Sow Fear of More Horror for Iraq's Christians
Mon Aug 2, 9:29 AM ET
By Matthew Green

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bombings at Iraqi churches did more than kill worshippers, smash tombstones and shatter stained glass -- they destroyed any hope among the Christian community of staying off the hit list for attacks.

"Now, as a Christian I feel like a target," said 40-year-old factory owner, Ayad Zaya, speaking a day after car bombs at five churches killed at least 11 people.

"This is the first time that this has happened in the history of Iraq," he said, standing near a bomb site at the Assyrian church in Baghdad. "When I leave my house I say my prayers in the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit."

Already scared of what could happen to them in the uncertainty gripping postwar Iraq, one of the Middle East's oldest Christian communities is reeling from the shock of the first attacks on churches during 15 months of insurgency.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=574&e=10&u=/nm/20040802/wl_nm/iraq_christians_dc_1

[saigon68]

15. "BRING EM ON" shouted the self proclaimed christian CHIMPANZEE

"WE''LL KILL THOSE RAG-HEADS and their offspring" he shrieked

[DoYouEverWonder]

17. Here's a pic from Karada

[leftchick]

18. "Huge number of casualties"....

:(

<snip>
We are expecting a huge number of casualties, but so far there are no specific numbers," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

[The_Casual_Observer]

22. Freedom is "untidy" in Iraq today.

Iraq is a failed PNAC experiment.

[leftchick]

24. Update: 15 killed in Iraqi church blasts

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=557515§ion=news


<snip>
BAGHDAD/MOSUL (Reuters) - Car bombs have exploded outside at least five Christian churches in Iraq, killing more than a dozen people and wounding many more in an apparently coordinated attack timed to coincide with evening prayers.

"We are expecting a huge number of casualties," an Interior Ministry source told Reuters on Sunday, saying there had been four blasts at churches in Baghdad and two in the northern city of Mosul. Police in Mosul said they knew of just one church attack there.

The Vatican condemned the blasts -- the first attacks on churches during the 15-month insurgency -- echoing concerns among Iraqis that they aimed to inflame religious tensions.

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

[DoYouEverWonder]

25. Here's a pic from the Chaldean monastery in the Baghdad

What a mess.


edit: One more pic, I'm not sure from where.

[leftchick]

30. omg, it is beyond sad....

this is total madness brougght to them by bushco*.... :puke:

[papau]

26. Christian churches under attack in wave of Iraqi violence

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1504&nc...

Christian churches under attack in wave of Iraqi violence

BAGHDAD (AFP) - At least six bombs exploded during evening prayers at churches in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul in what appeared to be a targeted assault on Iraq 's small but influential Christian minority, police said. <snip>

The worst devastation occurred at a large church and seminary complex in southern Baghdad, where the ravaged compound resembled a war zone, an AFP correspondent said. The car exploded as worshippers were leaving the church following mass, said an AFP correspondent at the scene. <snip>

Police reported a fourth explosion in Baghdad, outside a Chaldean Catholic church in the east of the city. <snip>

In Mosul, 370 kilometres (230 miles) north of Baghdad, two car bombs exploded in the early evening outside a Syrian-rite church, a security official, Major Mohammed Omar Taha, said. <snip>

In Kirkuk, police said an explosion went off in a Christian residential neighbourhood, but that there were no casualties. <snip>


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&nci...

At Least 12 Killed in One of Baghdad Church Blasts

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 12 people were killed in one of the four attacks on churches in Baghdad Sunday, a Reuters witness said. <snip>

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&nci...

Total of Six Iraqi Churches Attacked

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A senior Iraqi government official confirmed Sunday that four Christian churches in Baghdad and two in the northern city of Mosul had been targeted in car bomb attacks and said he expected "huge casualties." <snip>

[PurityOfEssence]

29. Well, this should get Boykin hopped up fer some heathen blood

They want to make this a religious war, and unfortunately that means people on both (all) sides.

Wonder what the fundies have to say...?

[DoYouEverWonder]

34. More info from the BBC

Bomb blasts rock Iraqi churches

Bombs have gone off near four churches in the Iraqi capital and one in the northern city of Mosul, police say.

At least 11 people are reported killed and dozens of others injured in what seems to be a new tactic by insurgents.

The first blast occurred outside an Armenian church in Baghdad, and three other churches were hit soon after in what looks like an orchestrated attack.

A blast was reported around the same time in Mosul, where a police station was bombed earlier in the day.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3526084.stm


This was a widespread and coordinated attack. Yet so far there is no official US response. Where's W, where's our Commander in Chief?

[daleo]

37. I am guessing payback for the U.S. military's bombing of mosques

It might well be misdirected payback, but that is the nature of these things. I hold Bush responsible - his lust for war started all this into motion.

[daleo]

42. I am surprised nobody has mentioned the possibility of black ops

Certainly bombing Christian churches might be expected to whip up war support in the U.S., at least among certain quarters, which would play into the hands of the PNAC/BFEE people.

[burrowowl]

44. As I said before

the Fundies won't care. They are Catholic and have been there before Islam came to be and Protestant fundie sects for that matter, which as we all know don't consider Catholics as 'christians'.