Aramean Churches and institutions in Iraq under Attack
Sunday 6th of January 2008 seven churches and charity organizations in Baghdad and Mosul were targeted. So far, no deaths or injures reported.
The targeted churches and organizations include:
East- Aramean Chaldean Church St. Paul in Mosul.
Nunnery of Dominican sisters in Mosul
East- Aramean Chaldean Orphanage of Chaldean sisters in Mosul.
West- Aramean “Melkitic” orthodox Church in Baghdad.
East- Aramean Chaldean St. Gorgis Church in Gadir district in Baghdad.
East- Aramean Chaldean Church St. Paul in Zahranya district in Baghdad.
East- Aramean Chaldean nunnery in Zafranay district in Baghdad.
The Arameans of Mesopotamia, also made known as “Assyrians” and “Chaldeans”, are the indigenous people of Aram-Nahrin, today a significant part of Iraq. The Arameans speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus, and are present since thousands of years in the area which also became known as “the cradle of civilization”.
Although all the Iraqis suffer terribly under daily insurgences and hardship, yet the situation of the Christian Arameans, including “Assyrians” and “Chaldeans”, is extra pressing. In contrast to other groups, the Arameans have no means to defend themselves. Because of terror, threats, blackmail, confiscation of their properties by gangs and terror groups, who apply and resort themselves to the law of the jungle, many Arameans and other Iraqis are forced to leave the country for Syria and Jordan.
On 22-8-2007 the Aram-Nahrin Organisation sent a letter to President Bush and Sarkozy and Premiere Brown to ask for their attention to the fragile situation of the Arameans of Iraq. On 29-8-2007 again our Organization sent a letter to the President, the Premiere and the Minister of Foreign affairs of Iraq and asked for their attention to the situation of the Christian Aramean people in Iraq and to help them to stay in Iraq.
To ask for the international attention to the terrible situation of the Iraqi people and Arameans, our organization made a oral statement on 2-8-2006 during the UN meeting of the Working Group of the Indigenous Population in Geneva in Switzerland.
These coordinated attacks were apparently meant to demoralize and break down the Arameans, also known as “Assyrians” and “Chaldeans”, to force them to leave the country so that the areas ethnically can be cleaned of the original inhabitants of Iraq.
IRAQ: 01/06/2008 14:47
(http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=11177&size=A)
Coordinated attacks against Christian Churches in Baghdad and Mosul
The targets were three Christian Churches and three convents belonging to religious orders. No deaths have been reported so far but serious damage has been done. Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk: the attacks could be part of a coordinated plan aimed at sending a clear message to the community.
Baghdad (AsiaNews) – “They represent a clear message and are probably part of a coordinated plan” the attacks which took place today, the feast of the Epiphany, against numerous churches and Christian institutions in Iraq. The Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk. Loiuis Sako is convinced of this who confirmed to AsiaNews that the car bombs did not provoke any deaths, but only one injured and material damage. The targets hit in the capital are : the Chaldean Church of St George in the Ghadir quarter, where Patriarch Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly had just finished celebrating mass; a Greek- Melchite Church and a convent of Chaldean sisiters in Zaafraniya. In Mosul, the car bombs targeted the Chaldean Church of St Paul, an orphanage run by the Chaldean sisters in Alnoor and a convent of Domenican nuns in Mosul Aljadida.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-01/06/content_7375202.htm
Bomb attacks target four churches in N Iraq
08:15, January 07, 2008
Insurgent groups attacked on Sunday four
churches for Iraqi Christian minority in the city of Mosul, the capital
of Nineveh province, a provincial police source said.
A car bomb parked near the Maryam al-Adhra' Church northeastern of Mosul
detonated, wounding four people and damaging parts of the building, the
source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
Another booby-trapped car parked near the Mar Yousif Church in the
Muhandiseen neighborhood in northern the city detonated and damaged
outer fence and parts of the church, the source said.
In western Mosul, an explosive charge went off in a monastery in the
Mosul al-Jadida neighborhood, damaging part of the deserted building
without human casualty, he said.
A fourth bomb attack took place in the Meskantah Church in the Khazraj
neighborhood in central the city, causing damages in the building, added
the source.
The attacks against the Christian minority came as part of the religious
and sectarian violence that ravaged the Iraqi cities, including Mosul,
some 400 km north of Baghdad.
