Mortar shells, explosive devices and car bombs were used in attacks targeting churches and monasteries in Baghdad and Mosul, according to Dubai-based Khaleej Times newspaper. At least six people were wounded, including two guards, reported Voices of Iraq news agency.
In the explosion at Saint Maskinta Church in Mosul, the bomb destroyed the external wall of the church and caused panic among children and nuns inside where the church had an orphanage for girls.
“I’m very upset. That the explosions went off at the same time proves that this was part of a plan,” said Mosul’s Chaldean archbishop, Farac Raho, on the TV channel Ishtar, according to the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA).
“Both our Muslim brothers and we had just celebrated Eid and Christmas at the same time this year and everything went well,” he said, referring to the Gregorian calendar still used by the Eastern Orthodox Church where Christmas and New Year fall on a later date.
“But the opposition has never really stopped pointing their weapons at us…Iraq’s government must immediately act against violence directed towards us Christians,” the archbishop pleaded.
On Monday, Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, condemned the attacks and expressed sympathy with the Christian “brothers.”
“I stand with them against this brutal attack that turned happiness into misery and concerns,” he said, according to the Khaleej Times.
