1 killed in Iraq church blast

MOSUL, Iraq: Bombers struck two churches in the main northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday killing a man and wounding at least 40 people, five of them schoolchildren, police and medics said.

All of the casualties were caused by a car bomb at the Syrian Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary, which operates an adjacent school in the city centre, police said.

A doctor at the city's Medical City hospital confirmed the casualty toll.

"There were several cars parked opposite the church and I thought they all belonged to parents waiting for their children to finish school," said Mohammed Hamed, 39, who runs a greengrocer's across the road.

"At 11:12 am (0812 GMT), one of the cars exploded and I was thrown backwards into my shop," Hamed told AFP adding he had been wounded in the back and head.

A 15-year-old student, Karim Jassem, said: "We were in class and the lesson was about to start when there was a huge blast and the windows shattered. I was wounded in the arm."

Ambulance driver Makki Jalal said he had been in the neighbourhood when the bomb exploded. "I took 15 men to hospital, four of them elderly."

The second bomb struck the Syrian Catholic Church of the Annunciation in the northern Shurta neighbourhood of the city, without causing any casualties, police said.

Since the US-led invasion of 2003, hundreds of Christians have been killed and several churches attacked.

Last year, thousands of Christians fled Mosul in the face of violence that killed 40 members of the community.

As recently as November 26, a church and a convent in Mosul were bombed, but there were no casualties.

A report this month by Human Rights Watch said minority groups in the north, including Christians, have fallen victim to a struggle between Arabs and Kurds for control of several disputed districts.

Iraq has congregations from a range of Christian denominations, including Chaldean Catholics, Assyrian Orthodox and Armenians as well as the two Syrian churches.