BAGHDAD, Iraq August 1, 2004. — Islamic Terrorist on Sunday carried a coordinated wave of car bombs on five Christian Churches in Baghdad and Mosul (Nineveh).
The attacks in Baghdad killed 15 people and injuring more than 50, the attacks on Mosul churches killed 11 people and injured 11 worshippers.
The first attack was aimed at the Baghdad Armenian Church in Karada just 15 minutes into the Sunday Service at around 6:30 p. m. After 10 minutes later there was a blast at a second church this time the Assyrian Catholic church, 500 meters away was targeted.
At 7:15 p. m. The third church was bombed of Mar Butrus Polus in the Al-Doora district in Southeast Baghdad, belonging to the AssyroChaldean Catholic Faith.
At the same time of 7 p. m In the district of Na’aeriya, New Baghdad (east of the capital), the church of Mar Elia el Heeri, also Assyrian (Syrian) Catholic Church was bombed.
In Mosul (Nineveh), at around 7 p. m. a car bomb blew up next to Mark Polus Church while worshippers were coming out of mass. Six cars were damaged, and parts of the church were damaged by fire. Reporters said several rocket-propelled grenades were also launched at the church. Iraqi police discovered a sixth bomb outside a Baghdad church. And authorities disarmed it.
The church blasts shattered stained-glass windows and sent churchgoers running into the streets, screaming and clutching their bleeding heads. The Assyrian church appeared to be among the most seriously damaged. The blast gouged a 4-by-6-foot crater and blew apart much of a brick wall surrounding the church. Inside the church compound, the explosion broke or ripped away the stone facades of more than a dozen tombs.
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