{"id":1589,"date":"2010-12-31T04:30:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-31T04:30:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-12-31T05:44:12","modified_gmt":"2010-12-31T05:44:12","slug":"two-killed-and-eight-injured-in-bomb-attacks-on-baghdad-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/two-killed-and-eight-injured-in-bomb-attacks-on-baghdad-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Two killed and eight injured in bomb attacks on Baghdad Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><strong><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 15px; \">David Batty&nbsp;and agencies<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 15px; \">The Guardian,\t<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 15px; \"><time datetime=\"2010-12-31\" pubdate=\"\" style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; \"><strong>Friday 31 December 2010<\/strong><\/time><\/span><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<strong><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19px; \">Grenade attacks and roadside bombing follow al-Qaida threats against families celebrating Christmas in Iraq.<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; \"><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; \">Two people were killed yesterday and at least eight injured in a series of bomb attacks on Christian homes in Baghdad.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; \">The grenade and bomb attacks came a week after Islamist militants linked to&nbsp;al-Qaida&nbsp;threatened a wave of violence against&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/iraq\" title=\"More from guardian.co.uk on Iraq\" style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 86, 137); text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; \">Iraq<\/a>&#8216;s beleaguered Christian community.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; \">In an attack in the south-west of the city, two grenades were thrown into the home of a Christian family, killing two people and injuring five, Iraqi police said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; \">In eastern Baghdad, two people were injured when a grenade was thrown into another Christian home.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; \">In western Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near a Christian house, injuring one member of the family and a passing motorist.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; \">The deaths were confirmed by Iraq&#8217;s military spokesman, Major General Qassim al-Moussawi, who added: &quot;The aim of these attacks is to prevent Christians from celebrating the new year&#8217;s holiday.&quot;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; \">Thousands of Iraqi Christians have fled to northern Iraq since October when at least 68 people were killed when militants stormed a Baghdad church and took the congregation of about 100 worshippers hostage.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; \">Last week, al-Qaida warned there would be further violence against the Christian community, leading many Christians to tone down their Christmas celebrations and cancel events such as evening mass and appearances by Santa Claus.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; \">Christian leaders estimate that there are between 400,000 and 600,000 Christians still living in Iraq. Before the war, some estimated the number was 1.4 million.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; \">Father Mukhlis, a priest at Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad, where the hostage incident in October occurred, called yesterday&#8217;s attacks &quot;direct oppression&quot; against Iraqi Christians.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; \">The Christmas holidays coincide this year with Muslim month of Muharram, which is particularly important as a period of mourning for Shias.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; \">Some Christians said they were playing down the Christmas holiday this year out of respect for their Shia neighbours.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; \">However, others reported intimidation by members of the Mahdi Army, a Shia militia backed by the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who pressured them not to celebrate publicly.<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Batty&nbsp;and agencies The Guardian, Friday 31 December 2010 &nbsp; &nbsp;Grenade attacks and roadside bombing follow al-Qaida threats against families celebrating Christmas in Iraq. &nbsp; Two people were killed yesterday and at least eight injured in a series of bomb attacks on Christian homes in Baghdad. The grenade and bomb attacks came a week after &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-assyrian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}