IRAQ: SERIAL ATTACKS ON CHURCHES CONTINUE

Excerpt from Compass Direct News: "Acar-bomb exploded outside a Chaldean church in northern Iraq yesterday, injuring two people, a Baghdad bishop said. The blast is the 10th reported attack on Iraqi churches in two weeks. Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop of Baghdad Shlemon Warduni confirmed that the explosion outside the Tahira church in western Mosul’s al-Shifaa neighborhood had slightly injured two people....The blast hurt a policeman and an unidentified woman and damaged a church wall and windows, the site said. It came just a week after two churches in Kirkuk, 150 miles north of Baghdad, were simultaneously bombed....The blasts came days after the apparently coordinated bombing of four churches and three convents in Baghdad and Mosul on January 6, in which six people were injured. The explosions ended a period of relative calm in which Iraq’s beleaguered Christian community had seen a drop in violence. In the aftermath of the bombings, Iraq’s prime minister came out in support of the country’s Christian minority. Nouri Al-Maliki promised to pursue the church bombers and said his government was deeply concerned with the safety of the country’s Christians, Arabic news website Elaph.com reported on January 8."