ICC Note: Some 200 Christians have been kidnapped for ransom, 900 Christians have been killed, and more than 60 churches have been bombed in Iraq between 2003 and 2012, the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization reports. Despite more than half the Christian population having fled the country since the war’s outbreak in 2003, persecution and hardship against the church that remains relentlessly continues, Open Doors reports.
4/24/2013 Iraq (Christian Today) – Islamist extremists want Iraq to be a “Muslim only” country. As a result, Christians in Iraq remain continuous targets of violent attacks.
Each month Open Doors field workers receive sad phone calls and emails of Christian acquaintances who report attacks against the Christians near them. While most of them are part of the general violence, such as bomb attacks and mortar fire which intensified during provincial elections last Saturday, a part of the violence can be labelled as specifically targeted against Christians.
“If these attacks take place in a Christian neighbourhood or a Christian village, you can assume they are targeted, especially against the Christian population of the neighbourhoods and villages,” said an Open Doors field worker.
“Since the fall of Saddam Hussein 10 years ago, an estimated 1,000 Christians have been killed, a relatively high number compared with percentages killed from other groups in Iraqi society.”
A Christian in Mosul was the target of two attacks in one week last March. After the first bomb exploded in his house on a Wednesday, a second one was thrown over his fence on Sunday. The Christian saw two young men running away. The second bomb, wrapped in a black bag and a women’s t-shirt, was deactivated by a military engineering team.
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