Seven wounded in Easter bombing outside Baghdad church

(April 25, 2011) At least seven people were injured when a bomb outside the entrance of a Baghdad church exploded on Easter Sunday, an Iraqi police official said. The blast took place just meters from the Sacred Heart Church in Baghdad's Karradah neighbourhood. Shrapnel from the bomb struck the outside of the building, and at least four of the church's windows were shattered. The officer who declined to be identified said no parishioners were inside and services had not been held in the building. Four policemen and three civilian bystanders were wounded. Iraqi Christians have faced a recent wave of violence, including an attack last year against a Baghdad church that killed 68 people. Before Christmas services, al-Qaida-linked militants threatened a wave of violence against Christians, forcing many to tone down their ceremonies. There was no such threat ahead of Easter Sunday but authorities nonetheless stepped up security in the capital and two main northern provinces where Christians live, tightening hundreds of checkpoints that already dot the streets and snarling traffic for hours. Christians also marked Easter peacefully in the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul. Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, Iraqi Christians have suffered repeated violence and harassment from Sunni Muslim extremists who view them as infidels and agents of the West, forcing many of them to flee the country either to the safer northern Kurdish self-ruled region or abroad.