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Sunnis and Shiits condemn
Church attacks
Baghdad, 30 Jan. (AKI) - Political and religious
leaders from Iraq's Shiite and Sunni communities
have unanimously condemned Sunday's car-bomb attacks
on churches in the Kurdish city of Kirkuk in
Kurdistan (northern Iraq) and in the capital,
Baghdad, which killed three people and wounded nine.
A car-bomb also exploded outside the Vatican embassy
on Sunday, although no casualties were reported.
The first condemnations of the bombings of a
Catholic church in Kirkuk and Catholic and Anglican
churches in Baghdad came from Iraq's most
influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Others followed from the radical Shiite cleric,
Moqtada al-Sadr , the Badr Brigade and from former
Iraqi prime minister, Iyad Allawi (a secular
Shiite).
Later on Monday, the Muslim Ulema Council also
condemned the bombings and warned that such acts
jeopardised national security. "If anyone thinks
these attacks can form a response to the recent
Danish cartoons, they are very wrong. This is not
the way to deal with the newspaper that has offended
the prophet Mohammed," the Council said in a
statement.
Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper has caused
outrage among some Muslims in the Middle East by the
publication of 12 caricatures of the prophet
Mohammed, depicting him as a stereotypical Islamic
terrorist. Saudi Arabia last week recalled its
ambassador to Denmark for consultations.
Sunday's blasts were apparently co-ordinated, and
took place within 20 minutes of each other, Iraqi
police said. Three of the bombs went of in Baghdad,
while a further two were detonated in Kirkuk. In
Baghdad, St Joseph's Catholic church in the suburb
of Sinaa and an Anglican church in the eastern
Nidhal area were hit. In Kirkuk, a bomb exploded at
the Catholic Church of the Virgin Mary, as well as
the Kirkuk Orthodox Church. They were the first
attacks against christian churches since December's
parliamentary elections.
Churches in Iraq have been the target of previous
bombings. In August 2004, a series of attack
targeting churches in Mosul, northern Iraq, and in
Baghdad, killed at least 12 people and injured
dozens.
There are some 800,000 Christians in Iraq - about
three percent of Iraq's population of 26 million.
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