Militants Attack Church in Iraq
Twenty people were injured after militants attacked a Catholic Church in southern Baghdad Monday, setting the church ablaze. The attack follows an outbreak of insurgent violence across Iraq as the country nears its first democratic elections
Twenty people were injured after militants attacked a Catholic Church in southern Baghdad Monday, setting the church ablaze. The attack follows an outbreak of insurgent violence across Iraq as the country nears its first democratic elections.
According to the Associated Press, an unnamed policeman reported that “a huge explosion at the church in the southern Doura neighborhood left about 20 people injured” after it rocked the area.
One witness, who experienced the strong explosion, told AP, "Half an hour ago, I felt my house shaking three times and then saw the fire set in the church."
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Another witness, whose home faces the church, said police sealed off the area and fired bullets in the air to disperse the crowd.
In a separate incident, the New York Times reported that a suicide car bomb near a Catholic church killed an Iraqi bystander and wounded a second Sunday afternoon.
With only three months to go until the country's first democratic elections, American and Iraqi officials are “grasping for any tool at their command to bring the insurgency under control,” reported the Times.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi declared emergency law for 60 days across most of Iraq, giving him broad powers that allow him to impose curfews, order house-to-house searches and detain suspected criminals and insurgents.
Meanwhile, explosions and heavy gunfire thundered through the outskirts of Falluja on Sunday night and early Monday as American soldiers and marines swept toward strategic bridges, hospitals and other objectives in what appeared to be the first stage of a long-expected invasion of the city.
[Note to reader: Although initial reports identified the church to be a Catholic Church, later reports revealed the church to be an Orthodox Church. See related links for the update.]
