Bombs Hit Mosul, As Christians Are Offered Protection

October 12, 2008

Author: Alissa J. Rubin and Stephen Farrell

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/world/middleeast/13iraq.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

Two suicide bombers struck the northern city of Mosul on Sunday, killing at least five Iraqis and wounding dozens more, as Iraq’s leaders rallied behind the city’s Christian minority, expressing distress at recent murders and displacement that have plagued the group.

The leaders pledged to send forces to ensure that Christians could return to their homes. Violence has continued in the area despite months of concerted effort by American forces and the Iraqi government to root out violent actors there.

The first of Sunday’s suicide attacks hit an Iraqi patrol; the second, which took place a few blocks from the first blast, was aimed at civilians, the American military said in a statement.

Most of the recent violence in Mosul has been aimed at Christians. Eleven Christians have been killed in the past 10 days and 485 families have fled their homes in the city for villages in the Nineveh Plain north of Mosul, according to local Christian politicians, who requested anonymity because they feared reprisals.

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki ordered National Police forces to Mosul on Sunday to protect Christians and secure their churches.