PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:
PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon
“The Christian-Muslim Co-existence is a vital dimension
of the Middle Eastern Society”
Stated His Holiness Aram I
Antelias, Lebanon – “For centuries Christians and Muslims have lived
together in the Middle East. Centuries of co-existence, interaction and
dialogue of life have created close affinities in different spheres of
society life as well as common values and traditions. Therefore, the
Christian -Muslim co-existence is neither a conceptual notion nor an imposed
reality, it is an integral and inseparable part of the societies in the
Middle East”, affirmed His Holiness Aram I, in Antelias, Lebanon.
Referring to the bombings of the churches in Iraq, Catholicos Aram I said:
“Violence in all its forms and expressions is against human and religious
values and principles. We have repeatedly stressed the need for dialogue,
solidarity, mutual tolerance, respect and understanding. Neither Islam nor
Christianity will accept violence as a way to solve problems. Bombing of
Christian churches in Iraq is a deep harm against the Christian-Muslim
existence. Both Christians and Muslims with their equal obligations and
rights are co-citizens of the Arab countries. It is my firm expectation that
the government of Iraq will take the necessary measures to protect the
rights and the well being of all citizens. It is also my expectations that
Christians and Muslims in Iraq and in different parts of the Middle East
will continue their dialogue and collaboration based on shared values and
aspirations, and strengthen their commitment to peace with justice”, stated
His Holiness.
##
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PA
Aug 2 2004
Christians fearful after attacks
By Pamela Constable
The Washington Post
Monday, August 2, 2004
BAGHDAD — Car bombs exploded outside at least five Christian
churches in two Iraqi cities during Sunday evening services in
coordinated attacks that sent terrified and bleeding worshippers
fleeing into the streets as stained-glass windows shattered and
flames engulfed the buildings. More than a dozen people were killed
and scores injured in the assaults, the first mass violence against
minority Christians who have long coexisted peacefully with Iraqi
Muslims.
The blasts struck four churches in Baghdad and at least one in the
northern city of Mosul within 90 minutes as night fell. Black smoke
billowed into the air over the darkening capital. Ambulances ferried
victims to hospitals and firefighters hosed flaming buildings and
cars, while police fired into the air and U.S. troops tried to
maintain order as people milled angrily in the affected
neighborhoods.
“We were lining up for communion, the holiest moment in the Mass.
Suddenly the explosion happened, and glass rained down from the
windows,” said a weeping, middle-aged woman at the bedside of her
wounded elderly mother in Ibin Nafeas Hospital. “Those who did this
are without religion,” added the woman, who did not want to give her
name. “This is not Muslims. Muslims don’t do this to their brothers.”
Witnesses and victims from three of the bombed churches in Baghdad
expressed similar sentiments, blaming the attacks on extremists
seeking to sow division between Christians and majority Muslims.
“This is God’s house. Those who did this may think they will go to
heaven, but they will go to hell,” said Reemon Merghi, 24, a
Christian who witnessed the blast at an Armenian church from his
apartment nearby. “Maybe they think they are going to make Muslims
and Christians fight each other, but we are like one family living in
one house.”
The first bomb in Baghdad exploded about 6:30 p.m. outside an
Armenian Catholic church in the Karrada district, shortly after
evening Mass had begun. As people poured outside in panic and police
and rescue crews raced to the scene, a second blast detonated about
20 minutes later outside an Assyrian Catholic church, Lady of
Salvation, about a half-mile away.
Within the hour, two more bombs had exploded next to a Chaldean
Christian church in the Doura neighborhood in southwest Baghdad and
outside a fourth church, Father Ilyas, in the New Baghdad district.
Police said the four blasts appeared to have come from booby-trapped
cars and were not suicide bombs. However, Reuters news service quoted
a U.S. military spokesman as saying that three of the four attacks in
Baghdad were known to be suicide car bombings.
In Mosul, about 220 miles north, officials said a car bomb exploded
next to the Father Bolus Church, a Chaldean Christian congregation,
as worshippers were leaving evening Mass, damaging the building and a
number of cars. They said rocket-propelled grenades were also fired
at the church. There were unconfirmed reports of a blast at a second
Mosul church. No details were available.
Before yesterday’s bombings, there had been a number of bomb attacks
against Christian-owned shops that sell alcohol in Baghdad and other
cities, but none against Christian places of worship. In January, a
minibus carrying a group of Iraqi Christian women to work at a U.S.
military base west of Baghdad was followed and attacked by gunmen,
who killed several of the passengers.
In a recent interview, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Baghdad, the
Rev. Jean Benjamin Sleiman, said Christians in Iraq were becoming
fearful of growing Islamic militancy since the fall of president
Saddam Hussein last spring, and that some were trying to leave the
country.
“There is very real freedom,” he said, “but we cannot enjoy it
because of general insecurity, the high level of fanaticism and the
belief of some Islamic leaders that Iraqi Christians are being
assimilated into the coalition forces, who are perceived as
Christians or even crusaders.”
There are an estimated 800,000 Christians in Iraq, about 3 percent of
the population. Most are Chaldeans or Eastern rite Catholics who are
independent from Rome but recognize the pope. There are also large
communities of Armenian, Assyrian, Roman or Latin rite, Greek and
Syriac Catholics, as well as some Protestant groups. In Baghdad
alone, where most Christians live, there are at least 50 churches.
Historically, Christians and Muslims have enjoyed peaceful relations
in Iraq, and Saddam’s government suppressed Islamic extremism while
allowing Christians to worship. But in the 15 months since the
U.S.-led invasion, militant Islamic groups have become active and
organized. Young Iraqi Shiites have formed a militia, while Islamic
militants with links to al-Qaida have assassinated officials,
kidnapped foreigners and bombed police stations.
Some distraught worshippers yesterday echoed Sleiman’s concern that
Iraqi Christians are being targeted because they represent a religion
that Islamic extremists associate with the U.S.-led forces here.
Recent terrorist attacks have focused on foreigners working with
companies that supply U.S. military bases and on Iraqis who
collaborate with U.S. authorities or join the Iraqi security forces.
“I am really frightened,” said Farah Isa, 30, a Christian who was
hurrying her two small sons home past the Lady of Salvation church
shortly after the bomb blast there. “Now these people are attacking
us directly, and during the day. What will we do? What is our fault
if the Americans are Christians? Do they consider us infidels? They
have no religion.”
In other developments, earlier yesterday a suicide bomber blew up his
Toyota Land Cruiser outside a police station in Mosul, killing at
least five people and wounding 53, officials said.
In Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle belonging to the
BBC, killing three passersby and wounding the driver.

Washington Times, DC
Aug 2 2004
Militants strike churches in Iraq
By Betsy Pisik
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
BAGHDAD – Muslim militants bombed Christians in Baghdad and the
northern city of Mosul yesterday, in near-simultaneous explosions
timed to coincide with Sunday services.
Eleven persons died and more than 40 were wounded in the attacks
on five churches in the two cities. It was the first major assault on
churches in Iraq since the 15-month-old insurgency began.

Hind Zakko and her father, Joseph, were listening to the Sunday
sermon at the Assyrian Catholic Church in Baghdad when they heard the
explosion rip through the old building and felt shards of stained
glass on their heads.
“It was horrible; it was so loud,” said Miss Zakko as she dabbed
blood from her father’s head, hands and neck, which had small cuts.
“Look at you,” she fussed. “Who would do this? Who would bomb a
church?”
Militants targeted four churches in Baghdad and one in Mosul.
U.S. forces, Iraqi police and civilians also were attacked
yesterday.
Three roadside bombs nationwide killed four persons, including a
U.S. soldier, and wounded six, police said. A suicide car bombing
outside a police station in Mosul killed at least five persons and
injured 53.
The bloodshed came after a night of clashes between U.S. troops
and insurgents that killed 12 Iraqis and wounded 39 in Fallujah.
Because Sunday is a normal workday in Iraq, Sunday worship
services typically are held in the evening.
“It’s a new step down for the people who are doing this. Those
people inside were praying,” said Col. Mike Murray, commander of the
3rd Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division, which has primary
responsibility for patrolling Baghdad.
Behind him, two priests in black robes embraced near a ruined
Catholic church, one of them seemingly oblivious to the slash across
his cheek and blood staining his white collar.
U.S. surveillance helicopters took to the skies, as ambulances
crisscrossed the streets of the capital to get to hospitals.
Christians poured into the streets as the sun set, shocked that
anyone would target houses of worship.
“I don’t think we feel safe anymore,” said Samer Sabberi, a
17-year-old Christian who lives next to a graceful Armenian
cathedral. “My family didn’t talk about it, but now they have been.”
In Mosul, a car bomb blew up next to a Catholic church while
worshippers were coming out of Mass, police Maj. Raed Abdel Basit
told Reuters news agency. Several rocket-propelled grenades also were
launched at the church.
The church attacks did not appear to be suicide bombings, U.S.
military and Iraqi officials said.
Up to 1 million Christians are thought to be living in Iraq, most
of them in or around Baghdad.
Under Saddam Hussein, they were allowed to worship freely, and
there were no overt acts of hostility or aggression.
But Christians have been complaining of harassment for months.
Many have left for Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
There have been a series of attacks this summer on Baghdad’s
liquor stores and music shops, most of them owned by Christians.
Fundamentalist Muslim groups have warned owners of these
businesses to close operations.
“This [attack] isn’t against Muslims or Christians, this is
against Iraq,” Deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abawi told the
Associated Press.
The Vatican called the attacks “terrible and worrisome,” said the
Rev. Ciro Benedettini, its spokesman.
Muslim clerics condemned the violence and offered condolences to
the Christian community.
“This is a cowardly act and targets all Iraqis,” Abdul Hadi
al-Daraji, spokesman for radical Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, told
Al Jazeera television.

Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (Comunicados de prensa), Switzerland
Aug 2 2004
Middle East church leaders respond to Iraq bombings: solidarity and
work for peace needed
Middle Eastern church leaders have condemned attacks on Iraqi
churches and called for solidarity following bombings at churches
yesterday.
Speaking today at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Faith and Order
plenary commission meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, bishop Nareg
Alemezian of the Armenian Apostolic Church (Catholicosate of Cilicia)
said: “This is the first time Christian churches have been targeted.
We condemn this attack and we are very concerned about it.”
Metropolitan Dr Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, from the Syrian
Orthodox Church of Antioch, urged Christians and Muslims to work
together for peace. “Solidarity is very important, both inside and
outside the region, both among Christians and between Christians and
Muslims,” he said.
Gregorios stressed that “the WCC and others should encourage anything
that brings Christians and Muslims together, not only in theological
dialogue but also in the dialogue of life and work.”
“I address my appeal to the Arab world, which can support any plan
for peace, and also to the Iraqi people themselves – if they are not
in solidarity, how then can they solve these problems?” he asked.
Alemezian called on international and local people to work for peace.
“This is not just a problem for Syrians and Armenians,” he said. “The
situation in Iraq is not isolated. It is related to the general
political situation in the world.
“We have a conflict, and we have to solve it – the US, the UN, all
parties involved in the creation of this situation, but also local
people and faith communities.”
Both leaders stressed the good relations between Christians and
Muslims in Iraq prior to the bombings.
“Christians are an integral part of the society they are living in,
they are not newcomers, they are not there for any superficial
reason,” said Alemezian. “Middle Eastern Christians are the people of
the land where Christ was born,” he added.
They both stressed the dangers posed by pressure on the nearly
1million Iraqi Christians leading to increased emigration.
“The diminishing number of Christians in Iraq is a terrible thing,”
said Gregorios. “The same picture is replicated in other countries
like Turkey, Iran, and Palestine. We are losing our people.”
Could a situation arise, they said, where there were no Christians in
the Middle East and no Muslims in the West? This would be “dangerous
for everybody,” said Metropolitan Gregorios. “This is very important.
It’s not good for humanity.”
According to news reports, at least 11 people were killed and dozens
injured as bombs exploded at four churches – two of them Syrian and
two, Armenian Orthodox – and a monastery.
Additional information: Juan Michel + 603 2148 9166 Melaka room +4179
507 6363
Para más información: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
[email protected]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ITV.com, UK
Aug 2 2004
Al-Qaeda blamed for Iraq church attacks
7.05AM, Mon Aug 2 2004
Al-Qaeda is being blamed for the bombing of four churches in Baghdad
which killed at least ten worshippers.
More than 40 others were injured in the co-ordinated attacks which
the Iraqi government said were an attempt to force Christians out of
the country.
The Vatican condemned the blasts – the first attacks on churches
during the 15-month insurgency – echoing concerns among Iraqis that
they aimed to inflame religious tensions.
In the deadliest attack, a suicide car bomber drove into the car park
of a Chaldean church in southern Baghdad before detonating his
vehicle, killing at least ten people as worshippers left the
building.
The US military has warned that guerrillas opposed to the presence of
more 160,000 foreign troops may try to deepen divisions between the
country’s diverse religious communities in their campaign to
destabilise Iraq.
Vatican deputy spokesman Father Ciro Benedettini said: “It is
terrible and worrying because it is the first time that Christian
churches are being targeted in Iraq.”
An explosion at the Armenian church in Baghdad shattered stained
glass windows and hurled chunks of hot metal. Another bomb exploded
15 minutes later at a nearby Assyrian church.
US Colonel Mike Murray of the 1st Cavalry Division said at least 50
people had been wounded at the church, some seriously.
In Mosul, officials said at least one person was killed in a blast at
a church and 15 wounded.

Independent Online, South Africa
Aug 2 2004
Zarqawi blamed for Iraqi church attacks
Baghdad – Iraq’s Christian minority became the latest target of
violence in Iraq on Sunday when explosions killed at least 10 people
outside churches here and in the northern city of Mosul.
And on Monday, Iraq’s national security adviser said the attacks
carry the hallmarks of suspected al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
“There is no shadow of a doubt that this bears the blueprint of
Zarqawi,” Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told Reuters, adding the attacks on
Sunday evening were an attempt to drive Iraq’s minority Christians
out of the country.
“Zarqawi and his extremists are basically trying to drive a wedge
between Muslims and Christians in Iraq.”
‘There is no shadow of a doubt that this bears the blueprint of
Zarqawi’
Rubaie said Iraq’s national security council would hold an emergency
meeting on Monday to discuss the blasts that hit at least five
churches, including four in Baghdad.
Six car bombs blew up in Baghdad and Mosul churches in the first
attack against Christian places of worship since US-led forces
toppled Saddam Hussein in April 2003. Fifty people were wounded.
Six people died when one of the bombs exploded inside a huge church
and seminary compound in southern Baghdad, causing massive damage,
police and medics said.
A rescue worker at the Al-Dura compound said he pulled out six dead
women and two dead children from the debris.
The bomb exploded as worshippers were leaving evening mass, an AFP
correspondent at the scene said.
‘It’s a crime. It’s Sunday, we were at mass’
A car was detonated by a suicide bomber outside an Armenian church in
Baghdad’s upmarket district of Karada, said policeman Haidar Abdul
Hussein.
Minutes later, a second car bomb exploded next to a Catholic Syriac
church.
Police reported a fourth explosion outside a Chaldean Catholic church
in the east of Baghdad.
“It’s a crime. It’s Sunday, we were at mass. There were a lot of
women and children,” said Bishop Raphael Kutami at the Syriac church
in Baghdad.
Another priest said the explosion occurred as people were leaving the
church and the number of wounded was unkown.
In Mosul, 370 kilometres north of the capital, two car bombs exploded
in the early evening outside the Mar Polis church in the central
Mohandessin neighborhood, Major Mohammed Omar Taha said.
Medics there said one person was killed and 15 were wounded in the
bombings.
In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, police said an explosion went off
in the evening in a Christian neighborhood, but there were no
casualties because most people were at church.
A Vatican spokesperson described the attacks as “terrible and very
worrying because it is the first time that Christian places of
worship have been targeted in Iraq.”
“It seems that someone wants to increase tension by trying to hit all
groups, the churches included,” said the spokesman, the Reverend Ciro
Benedettini.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
Aug 2 2004
FOREIGN MINISTER OF AZERBAIJAN MET PRESIDENT AND FOREIGN MINISTER OF
IRAN IN TEHRAN
[August 02, 2004, 11:47:05]
Visiting the Islamic Republic of Iran, foreign minister of Azerbaijan
Republic Elmar Mammadyarov met on July 31 the President of IRI Seyid
Mohammad Khatemi. ON the same day, Azerbaijani foreign minister
carried negotiations with his Iranian counterpart.
As stated, during the meetings, foreign minister of Azerbaijan noted
that national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev paid great attention
on the Azerbaijan-Iran relations, and the reciprocal visits of the
two countries’ presidents serve development of the bilateral ties,
and that this course is successfully being continued by President
Ilham Aliyev.
Noting that he is pleased with the existing level of cooperation
between the two states in the frame of the international
organizations, Mr. Mammadyarov said that he assesses support by Iran
the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan in the Armenia-Azerbaijan,
Nagorny Karabakh conflict. The Minister stressed that preparation for
the Iranian President’s coming visit to Azerbaijan are continued.
Noting that he pays special attention to the Iranian-Azerbaijani
relations, President Seyid Mohammad Khatemi with great pleasure
reminded that President Heydar Aliyev attached particular attention
on these relations and expressed gratitude to President Ilham Aliyev
for development of these relations.
Underlining that recently he will visit the Republic of Azerbaijan,
the Iranian President said he was keen in development of the existent
relations between the two countries. Noting that he adheres peace way
settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorny Karabakh conflict and
liberation of the occupied Azerbaijani territories, President of Iran
stated that his country supports territorial integrity of Azerbaijan
and that Iran would make every effort to regulate the conflict.
President Khatemi stressed the necessity of making further efforts in
realization of joint economic projects.
In the meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mr. Kamal Kharrazi,
minister of foreign affairs of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov discussed
the recent official visit of the president of IRI Seyid Mohammad
Khatemi to Azerbaijan, as well as other questions on cooperation in
political, economic, cultural and humanitarian fields. Mr. Kharrazi
stated that Iran backs participation of Azerbaijan in the project
North-South corridor project. The foreign ministers held news
conference on conclusions of the visit for the media representatives.
Foreign minister of Azerbaijan E. Mammadyarov met in Tehran the
secretary general of ECO, Mr. A. Orazbay. Discussed were issues
connected to the forthcoming ECO Summit in Dushenbe in September, as
well as issues on cooperation on transport, tariffs and power fields
among the ECO member-states.
Minister E. Mammadyarov met the staff members of Azerbaijan embassy
in Iran, updated them on the conclusions of the 27-28 July meeting
held at the Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry in Baku. He spoke of the
tasks put forward by the Country’s President Ilham Aliyev at the
meeting.
Foreign minister of Azerbaijan visited the memorial-tomb of the
leader of Islamic Revolution of Iran Imam Khomeyni and assigned a
wreath on the monument.

Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Aug 2 2004
Last-minute ante helps freshman
By Naush Boghossian
Staff Writer
GLENDALE — After years of studying, earning good grades and taking
advanced placement classes, Veronika Barsegyan got what she had been
hoping for: a big, fat letter of acceptance from UCLA.
It was followed, however, by another letter — this one explaining
that, because of funding shortages, she’d have to wait two years
before starting at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Disappointed, the 18-year-old Glendale resident enrolled in classes
at Glendale Community College.
But wait.
Barsegyan is now headed back to UCLA — the result of last week’s
state budget vote that directed $33 million back to University of
California and California State University campuses.
“I’d be more understanding if they said they couldn’t accept me
because my SAT scores weren’t high enough or my grades weren’t good
enough,” Barsegyan said. “But after you worked that hard, they tell
you you’re in, but you’re not in. And it’s hard to explain to
everyone who asks, ‘Where are you going to school?”‘
About 7,000 UC and Cal State applicants who had been redirected to
community colleges — with the understanding that they would be
guaranteed transfers to their chosen schools if they kept up their
grades — will again be offered positions at the schools.
Glendale Community College had 22 students who had indicated they
were interested in joining the guaranteed transfer program, and
Pasadena City College, 66.
“The reality is that these students had qualified by grade and by SAT
scores and … they had to redirect them despite having done
everything necessary to be admitted,” said Sen. Jack Scott,
D-Pasadena, chairman of the budget subcommittee on education that had
fought against the higher education cuts.
“We can’t deny dreams and the kind of values and upward mobility that
education gives people.”
Barsegyan — unlike the 80 percent of students who, when offered UC
redirecting, turned it down to attend other schools — chose not to
attend the private Loyola Marymount University at about $25,000 a
year because she didn’t want to go into debt.
She had already immersed herself in classes at Glendale College,
finishing summer school Thursday and planning to take classes in the
fall. Her goal was to finish up community college in one year.
“It was a dream of mine to go to UCLA, and I was kind of
disappointed. I was trying to hurry up and get there,” she said,
laughing. “It wasn’t like ‘Bummer, I’m going to GCC,’ but now I’m
really excited because it’s a completely different atmosphere there,
to experience the UCLA life.”
Barsegyan, who graduated from Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School
with a 3.9 grade point average and scored 1260 on her SATs, plans to
study political science and eventually apply to law school.
Her father, Apet, who had been closely monitoring the state budget
discussions, said he’s pleased that his daughter will attend the
university she was qualified to attend.
The family moved from Armenia to the United States 15 years ago, and
his children grew up knowing that education was the No. 1 priority.
“One of the goals for human beings is to lead a better life and
provide better living conditions for your children,” Apet Barsegyan
said. “In this case … even though the decision was made to cut the
financial budget to schools, people stood up to reverse it. That’s
what makes this a great country.”

Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Aug 2 2004
Christian minority targeted in Iraq
By Somini Sengupta and Ian Fisher
The New York Times
BAGHDAD, Iraq — In the first significant attacks against Iraq’s
Christian minority since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s
government, assailants staged a series of coordinated car bombings
Sunday evening near four churches in Baghdad and another in the
northern city of Mosul.
In Baghdad, at least 11 people, including two children, were killed
in the explosions timed to coincide with Sunday evening Mass, and at
least 20 people were injured, witnesses and hospital officials said.
One person died in the Mosul attack, and seven people were injured,
according to a U.S. military report.
At least one church, in a lively Christian enclave in the Karrada
neighborhood of downtown Baghdad, was struck as the priest was giving
Communion. Next door, a Muslim family of five was killed by the
blast, which was powerful enough to rip a row of bricks from the
building’s top floor and shatter the windows inside a courtyard well
down the block. A hospital official said a Muslim passerby also was
killed in one of the blasts.
“It is a crime,” Monsignor Raphael Kutemi said in front of the
rectory of the Syrian Catholic church, Notre Dame of Deliverance. “It
is Sunday, and we were in prayer.”
The bombings Sunday seemed to mark another turning point in the
already terrifying violence that has wracked Iraq since the U.S.-led
invasion last year.
Even in this long-secular capital city, a growing tide of Islamist
extremism since the fall of Saddam’s government has shuttered liquor
stores, often owned by Christians, and beauty salons and compelled
women and girls to cover their heads. It was not clear if the attacks
on the churches were an extension of fundamentalist fervor or a
calculated escalation by insurgents who have shown a willingness to
broaden their attacks, even on fellow Muslims, in their fight against
the U.S. presence here and the new interim Iraqi government.
A few minutes before the Syrian Catholic church was struck, another
car bomb exploded in front of the nearby Armenian church as Mass was
under way. And inside a seminary compound in the south Baghdad
neighborhood of Doura, two cars loaded with explosives blew up. A
fourth explosion was set off across town in an enclave called New
Baghdad when a car carrying explosives crashed into the car in front
of it and blew up yards from a Catholic church but in front of a
mosque.
Across Baghdad, the evening sky was laced with plumes of thick black
smoke. U.S. military helicopters hovered over the blast sites. The
smell of charred metal lingered in the air long after the fires were
extinguished and darkness fell.
About the same time Sunday evening, in Mosul, about 220 miles north
of Baghdad, parishioners were coming out of a Catholic church Mass
when a car bomb detonated. A U.S. military report said the blast was
caused by a bomb in a four-door Toyota Supra.
Meanwhile, the fate of seven foreign truck drivers taken hostage last
week remained uncertain.
Agence France-Presse quoted a Kenyan government official in Nairobi
as saying that all seven — three Kenyans, three Indians and an
Egyptian — had been freed. But neither the Kuwaiti company that
employed them nor the Muslim sheik who has tried to negotiate for
their release could confirm this. In fact, the sheik, Hisham
al-Dulaymi, said Sunday evening that the hostage-takers, who call
themselves the Bearers of the Black Banners, had warned him in a
letter that they were prepared to behead their captives.
Al-Dulaymi said he would not take part in any more negotiations,
saying that he believed the kidnappers would, as threatened, begin
executing hostages soon.
“They are going to carry out their threat,” he said Sunday afternoon,
showing the letter in a plain brown envelope, which he said was sent
to him by insurgents signaling that the negotiations for the
hostages’ freedom had ended in failure.
He said the hostages’ employer, Kuwait Gulf and Link Transport, had
refused to furnish what the kidnappers described as compensation
money for those killed during clashes with U.S. troops in the western
insurgency hotbed of Fallujah. He refused to specify how much the
kidnappers demanded, but it was a suggestion nonetheless of
less-than-ideological imperatives driving the hostage-taking.
Reuters, citing a Lebanese Foreign Ministry official, reported that
on Sunday Iraqi soldiers freed a Lebanese citizen who had been seized
in a separate hostage-taking. The fate of another Lebanese, taken
captive with a Syrian driver on Friday, remained unclear.
Earlier on Sunday, a suicide car bomber raced to a police station in
Mosul and blew up his vehicle, killing at least five and wounding 53,
U.S. military officials said. In Baghdad early in the morning,
another car bomb killed three and injured three others.
The Sunday strikes followed overnight clashes between U.S. troops and
insurgents in Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad, in which 10 people
were killed, the U.S. military said.
The church bombings struck a singular note in the history of the
15-month insurgency. It is the first time since the March 2003
invasion that Christians, who represent less than 5 percent of the
country’s 24 million citizens, have come under fire in such a direct
way. Guerrillas have largely directed their wrath toward Iraqi
government representatives and law enforcement officials, as well as
foreign workers, translators and anyone else accused of collaborating
with the 140,000-strong U.S. troop presence here.
But the U.S.-led invasion unleashed Islamist hardliners, long
suppressed during Saddam’s rule. In Baghdad, a militia loyal to the
radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has been blamed for many of the
attacks against the largely Christian-owned liquor stores. At the
same time, the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been
accused by U.S. officials of assembling a core of Sunni Muslim
extremists, some from outside Iraq, to foment sectarian violence.
Sunday’s coordinated strikes sent shock waves among ordinary
Christians and Muslims alike.
“Never, I’m never going to church again on Sunday,” said Khawla Yawo
Odishah, who had escaped the bombing because a family medical
emergency had caused her to miss Mass.
As darkness fell, Odishah, 50, lingered across the street from the
compound of St. Peter Seminary in Doura, where two car bombs blew up,
torching several other cars and filling the night air with the heat
and stench of burning metal. This was the Mass many of her friends
usually attended, she said.
Faris Talis, a Muslim, said he was in his tire repair store Sunday
evening when the first car bomb exploded on the street, spattering
bits of glass and metal. He said he looked up to see a man, who he
believes was involved in the attack, run into the seminary’s parking
lot. Then the second blast went off inside the seminary compound. He
ran inside to help what he said were scores of injured and dead.
“I am a Muslim and I was evacuating them,” he said. “I feel terrible
about this. Whatever did this is a criminal. He doesn’t have any
mercy in his heart.”
In the seminary parking lot, about a dozen cars sat scorched and
smoking just inside the front wall, at least one tipped up on its
side. Glass, ash and car parts were strewn around the lot, about 50
yards from the main building. Heat radiated off the blackened metal,
as several men carried a blanket to one of the cars, apparently to
retrieve the body of someone who had been trapped inside.
In the Karada neighborhood in central Baghdad, worshippers had
gathered for Mass at the Armenian church, when, according to one
witness, a Volkswagen Passat pulled up and exploded. The engine flew
200 feet and landed in the street. Flames raced to the sky in front
of the church.
Minutes later, a few blocks away, a second explosion erupted in front
of the Syrian Catholic church, sending people running, engulfed in
smoke.
Safaa Michael, who was at the service, heard the first explosion.
When the second blast came, “all the glass fell down over our heads.”
There were blood stains on his temple.
The church went suddenly dark. The explosion had cut the electricity.
Zaid Gazee Al-Janabi, 30, a security guard and a Muslim who lives
down the street, watched the bomb blow off the roof of a house next
to the church. He pulled five bodies, including those of two
children, from the ground floor. They were Muslims. They were his
friends.
Fadel Aziz, 38, a Christian businessman who lives on the block, said
he watched as the car exploded in front of him. Glass shattered along
the block and a hunk of blackened metal careened into his yard. “It
was very big,” he said. He said he saw six or seven injured, and
helped two of them into his house. Like many others, he blamed the
carnage on foreigners.
“We have lived with Muslims for thousands of years,” he said.
“Nothing like this ever happened before. They cannot be Iraqis. They
came to make trouble in the country.”

Interfax
Aug 2 2004
Armenian budget surplus 1% of GDP in H1
Yerevan. (Interfax) – The budget surplus in Armenia in the first half
of 2004 amounted to 5.96 million dram or 1% of GDP, a source in the
republic’s Finance and Economics Ministry told Interfax.
Budget revenue in January-June this year amounted to 126.766 billion
dram (21.1% of GDP), with expenditure of 120.8 billion dram (20.1% of
GDP).
Armenian GDP in January-June 2004 increased 9.1% year-on-year to
600.04 billion dram.
The republic’s budget for 2004 was confirmed with a deficit of 42.9
billion dram or 2.53% of GDP. Revenue is planned at 274.1 billion
dram, with expenditure of 317 billion dram.
The official exchange rate on July 30 was 519.07 dram to the dollar.