IRAQ POLICE DEPLOYED IN MOSUL CHRISTIAN AREAS

Middle East Online
2008-10-13
UK

Reinforcements in place

Nearly 1,000 police to patrol Christian areas of northern city of
Mosul to protect them from violence.

MOSUL – Iraq ordered nearly 1,000 police to patrol Christian areas
of the northern city of Mosul on Sunday as thousands of members of
the minority group fled the worst violence against them in five years.

The action came as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered an immediate
investigation into the murders of Christians in Mosul and pledged to
take all steps necessary to protect the threatened community.

"We will take immediate action to resolve the problems and difficulties
faced by Christians in Mosul," Maliki said in a statement released
by his office after a crisis meeting with two Christian lawmakers.

Two brigades of national police were deployed in the city, considered
by US and Iraqi commanders as the last urban stronghold of Al-Qaeda
in Iraq, interior ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said.

Despite the reinforcements, at least eight people including a
Christian were killed in four separate attacks on Sunday, security
officials said.

Two investigation teams, one security and the other criminal, have
also been sent to probe a spate of attacks on Christians in Mosul
since September 28, in which at least 12 members of the community
have now been killed, Khalaf added.

Police were seen setting up checkpoints at churches in the city’s
four largely Christian areas and were patrolling the streets on foot.

At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday condemned the violence
against Christians in both Iraq and India.

"I invite you to pray for peace and reconciliation as situations
cause concern and great suffering…. I think of violence against
Christians in Iraq and India," he said.

Nearly 1,000 Christian families have fled their homes in the city
since Friday, taking shelter on the northern and eastern fringes of
Nineveh province, according to provincial governor Duraid Kashmula.

Kashmula said the violence was the worst against Christians in
five years.

"(It) is the fiercest campaign against Christians since 2003,"
Kashmula said on Saturday. "Among those killed over the past 11 days
were a doctor, an engineer and a handicapped person."

At least three homes of Christians were blown up by unidentified
attackers on Saturday, security officials said.

In the latest incidents in the city, at least eight Iraqis were killed
and several dozen wounded in four attacks, including a shooting and
two suicide car bombs aimed at American and Iraqi soldiers, the US
military and police said.

One Christian was killed and his nephew wounded late Sunday when
unidentified gunmen opened fire in the eastern neighbourhood of Hay
al-Ekhaa, an officer with the local police said.

Earlier a suicide car bomb targeting coalition forces killed five and
wounded 10 Iraqis, US army spokesman Staff Sergeant Sam Smith said,
adding that no American soldiers were among the casualties.

Among the dead were three young boys, he said.

"The second car bomb was targeting Iraqi police and wounded 25
Iraqis. We don’t know how many were police or civilians," Smith said.

In another incident, two Iraqis died and three were hurt as a homemade
device exploded outside a prison, a Mosul policeman said.

Since the US-led invasion of 2003 more than 200 Christians had
been killed and a string of churches attacked, with the violence
intensifying in recent weeks, particularly in the north.

There were around 800,000 Christians in Iraq at the time of the
invasion, a number that has since shrunk by around a third as the
faithful have fled the country, according to Chaldean Archbishop
Louis Sako.

In March, the body of the Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, Paul Faraj
Rahho, 65, was found in a shallow grave in the city two weeks after
he was kidnapped as he returned home from celebrating mass.

Iraq’s Christian community includes various denominations, including
Syrian Orthodox and Catholic, Armenian Orthodox and Roman Catholic
congregations.