Christians fear for life in Iraq, several flee war–ravaged nation

Baghdad, Iraq: Over 120 people were killed on July 28 in a massive suicide attack and clashes across the war–ravaged nation of Iraq.

It was not clear whether any Christian was killed among the 70 who died when a suicide car bomb exploded near a police station in the Iraqi town of Baquba, where Iraqis stood in line to apply for jobs in the security forces. Persecutions against local Christians have stepped up lately as Islamic extremists suspect the former of sympathizing with the American occupiers.

The U.S. based Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) reported that "growing persecution" has many Iraqi Christians fleeing the nation as reports of Christians who have died in violence and specific attacks are on the rise.

The suicide attack last Wednesday left behind a scene of devastation. Television footage showed dead and mutilated bodies scattered across the ground and injured people soaked in blood, lying dazed and confused. Rescue services were struggling to cope and outgunned police men watched in agony as people cried for attention between twisted metal and debris.

Most of the dead and injured on Wednesday’s attack were Iraqis queuing for jobs and passengers of a nearby bus that accidentally passed the area when the bomb exploded. According to news reports, the provincial police chief blamed the attack on Al–Qaeda–linked militants.

Confirming that a suicide bomber triggered the massive explosion, General Walid Khaled Abdel Salam accused a group loyal to Jordanian born Abu Mussab al–Zarqawi, Al–Qaeda's suspected chief in Iraq, of masterminding the attack.

"After they found themselves cornered and hunted down by Iraqi police, they carried out this horrible act to scare off the new recruits," he was quoted as saying. In another incident, 35 insurgents and seven Iraqi troops were reportedly killed in a joint raid with multinational soldiers in south of Baghdad.

Suicide attacks have been steadily on the rise ever since Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was ousted. Recently, several people were killed, including a 13–year–old child, in a Baghdad mortar attack. Earlier on July 27, a US soldier was killed and three comrades wounded when militants ambushed their convoy, news reports said.


The latest incident of violence was expected to increase public pressure on governments of nations such as Poland, Hungary and South Korea to withdraw forces.

However, Hungary vowed on July 27, not to withdraw its forces from Iraq, despite growing public pressure to do so after a Hungarian soldier was killed and other Eastern European coalition members were kidnapped and murdered in separate incidents.

On June 22, militants beheaded Kim Sun–Il after Korea refused their demands to withdraw its 660 military medics and engineers from Iraq and cancel a plan to send an additional 3,000 troops. His decapitated body was recovered from a dusty road near Baghdad.

– by our special correspondent