Release International

Christians in Baghdad are calling on the authorities for better protection after six churches in the city were bombed over a weekend.

In the worst attack, a car bomb exploded near a church on Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, July 12, at the end of an evening service, just as the congregation were leaving. Four people were killed and 21 were injured, according to the BBC. Bombs were detonated in four other churches in the city on the same day, injuring at least ten other people.

A church in the west of Baghdad had been attacked the previous day. And, on Monday July 13, a bomb exploded in a church in the northern city of Mosul. More than 20 people in total were injured in the attacks, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry. The BBC reports that most of the bombs were hidden in cardboard boxes.

Also on July 12, a senior provincial government official was shot dead in Kirkuk in northern Iraq. It is not yet known if the murder of Aziz Rizqo Nisan, a Christian, was religiously motivated or not.

Auxiliary bishop of Baghdad Shlemon Warduni said he had asked Christians in the city to 'take courage'. But he also told AsiaNews news agency that there was a feeling of 'powerlessness and despair' in the Christian community that, he fears, could lead to another mass exodus of believers, unless officials heed their calls for greater protection.

(Sources: AsiaNews, BBC, IRIN News, Middle East Concern, Reuters, The Daily Star - Lebanon)

• Ask God to multiply His church in Iraq and build His people's faith.
• Pray specifically for everyone who was injured or bereaved in the bomb attacks.

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