Iraq Church Bombed for Second Time

 

      

Baghdad – AFP — A car bomb has exploded outside a church in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, slightly injuring two people, in the latest in a wave of attacks on Christian buildings.

The booby-trapped car was discovered parked outside the Al-Tahira Chaldean church in the Al-Shiffa district of the city and detonated as security personnel evacuated the area, police chief General Abdel Karim Khalaf al-Juburi said. A police officer and a little girl were wounded in the blast.

No worshippers were in the church at the time of the explosion, although church windows, the front door and a wall around the church grounds were damaged. The attack was the second on Al-Tahira. It has been closed since the first attack about two years ago. Several Christian buildings were targeted by bombers earlier this month with blasts in Mosul, Kirkuk and Baghdad.

No one was killed but there was much damage to the buildings. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki has vowed that his government is committed to ensuring the safety of Christians in Iraq.

Pope Benedict XVI has also voiced his concern for Christians in the war-ravaged country in his annual speech to Vatican diplomats.