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Iraqi Christians' hopes of peace being restored in the northern city of Mosul have been dashed by the murder of two Christian sisters.

Reuters news agency reports that gunmen shot one of the women outside her home in Al Qahira district, before storming the house, killing her sister and wounding their mother. The assailants planted a bomb in the entrance to the house before leaving; the device exploded when police arrived at the scene, injuring several officers.

Thousands of Christians fled Mosul after a spate of killings and attacks on their community in September and October (7x7, October 28, 2008). Some were starting to return home as security seemed to be improving, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. But their hopes have been dealt a fresh blow by this most recent attack.

Meanwhile, Christians across Iraq are angry about a new electoral law which gives them only three seats out of a total of 440 available on provincial councils.

The legislation, signed by President Jalal Talabani earlier this month, fell a long way short of earlier promises: Shlemon Warduni, auxiliary bishop of Baghdad, said the government had pledged to reinstate earlier legislation which guaranteed 13 seats for Christians. Christians make up an estimated three per cent of Iraq's population.

The government has since said that it will use the new legislation 'only to renew provincial councils' in January's elections and that thereafter it will conduct a census to review quotas. But the bishop is still unhappy. 'It is meaningless to deny representation today whilst pledging equality for later,' he told AsiaNews.

(Sources: AsiaNews, Associated Press, Reuters, Spero News, The Voice of the Martyrs USA)

Ask God to protect Christians and other minorities in Mosul – and across Iraq.

Pray that the UN and international community would put more pressure on the Iraqi government to protect minority groups, defending their religious and voting rights.

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