By: Stefan J. Bos
Special Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
MOSUL, IRAQ (ANS) -- A car bomb exploded in Iraq's Biblical city of Mosul Saturday, January 31, killing at least nine people while three United States soldiers died when a roadside blast ripped through their convoy near Kirkuk adding to fears among the local Christian population, reports said.
The attack at the main police station in Mosul, which hospital sources said also wounded 45 people, came as Christians in the area contemplated their options following several Muslim attacks and threats, ASSIST News Service (ANS) monitored.
Iraq's Christians have been threatened by militants who see them as supporters of the United States-led coalition and Western colonial powers.
A key Christian judge was recently killed in Mosul, which scholars claim replaced the ancient city of Nineveh, where the Bible says Prophet Jonah brought the message of repentance. In addition bombs have been found at Christian schools in the area and Christian students and families have received notes to convert to Islam or be killed.
CHRISTIAN JUDGE
Ismail Youssef, a prominent Christian judge, was assassinated outside his home in the northern city of Mosul, on November 4th, several human rights watchers say. Several days later authorities reportedly defused a cluster of bombs found at two Christian schools, one in Mosul and another in Baghdad.
Christian leaders have urged America to improve security, but Saturday's roadside bomb against the U.S military convoy near the oil rich city of Kirkuk underscored Washington's difficulties to end the bloodshed.
The Associated Press (AP) news agency quoted the U.S. military as saying that "a homemade bomb" exploded as the 4th Infantry Division convoy passed by about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of the city, killing the three soldiers.
OVER 500 KILLED
Their deaths raised to 522 the number of American soldiers killed in the Iraq, resembling the early days of hostilities in Vietnam in the 1960's. In Mosul, eyewitnesses saw several limbs, some of them smoldering, and decapitated bodies in the bloodied street in front of the police station.
Windows of buildings were shattered and pieces of burning car wreckage spewing acrid black smoke littered the streets. At least five cars were destroyed, AP reported.
An AP journalist saw how stunned survivors stumbled down the street, their clothing soaked in blood. A huge crater was reportedly gouged out by the blast.
IRAQI SOLDIERS
A day earlier, three Iraqi soldiers were killed in Mosul when gunmen opened fire on them at a checkpoint, news reports said.
Meanwhile, Dutch officials said Iraqi insurgents hit their embassy in Baghdad with rocket-propelled grenades Friday, January 30. The officials say no one was injured in the attack, which sparked a fire at the building.
Saturday's attacks occurred as Iraqis prepared to celebrate the Muslim holy feast of Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice. The feast, a major Muslim holiday, comes at the end of the annual holy pilgrimage to Mecca.
MUSLIM MILITANTS
The violence has been linked to mainly Muslim militants, including remnants of the old regime and insurgents from neighboring countries, who oppose the American-coalition and a more open society that would be tolerant to other faiths, including Christianity.
It comes amid reports that a radical Islamic movement, is rapidly spreading across the troubled nation, ahead of Washington's efforts to create a more permanent multi-ethnic government and a new constitution for Iraq.
An Iraqi Christian woman, identified as Eman, told the U.S. based Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) she recalled how recently a group of Muslim men ordered her to cover her head. "They told me that if I didn't put on a veil, they would slaughter me. Can you imagine this? I am a Christian and we don't believe in wearing the veil."
CHRISTIAN WOMEN
Human rights organizations say these are no isolated incidents, and that many Christian women in cities such as Basra have been threatened. There are worries in the region that latest developments will increase the number of Christian refugees.
Since the end of the first Gulf War, the Christian population of Iraq has dropped from nearly two million to about one million or less.
Noah Feldman, a close adviser to American administrator Paul Bremer, reportedly told British media that the United States is failing to create a secular, pro-Western Iraq. Feldman fears Iraq is bound to embrace Sharia, a harsh form of Islamic law, as the basis of its constitution, CBN monitored.
Despite the tensions, Iraqi Christians are involved in spreading the Gospel as well as aid projects, while believers often race through the streets amid gunfire and explosions to visit over crowded churches, ANS established.