Reuters
Aug 1 2004

Cars Explode Outside Baghdad Churches; 2 Dead

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Car bombs exploded outside two Christian churches
in central Baghdad Sunday, killing at least two people, wounding
several more and damaging cars and buildings.
A security source in Baghdad said they were suicide attacks.

The first blast occurred outside an Armenian church in the Karrada
district of Baghdad, which is heavily populated with Christians, and
sent thick clouds of black smoke billowing into the sky over the
city.

The second blast happened about 15 minutes later outside an Assyrian
church in the same area, rattling windows and sending a loud boom
reverberating across the neighborhood.

An ambulance driver told Reuters at least two people were killed in
the second explosion and several more were wounded.

The first blast blew out the stained glass windows of the church,
scattered pieces of hot metal across a wide area and left the burning
wreckage of at least three cars in its wake. “There was a
booby-trapped car, it exploded,” said policeman Geilan Wahoudi at the
scene of the first explosion.

The U.S. military said it had found the shell of a mortar near that
blast, which caused several injuries but is not believed to have
killed anyone.

The bomb appeared to detonate near a generator, which may have caused
more of a conflagration, the police said.

There are an estimated 800,000 Christians in Iraq, most of them
living in Baghdad.

In recent weeks there has been a string of attacks on alcohol sellers
throughout Iraq, the vast majority of whom are Christians of either
the Assyrian, Chaldean or Armenian denominations.