Faith Under Fire..........
24 April 2011 Last updated at 13:36 ET
Bomb explodes outside church in Baghdad
Injured policeman in a Baghdad hospital after an attack on the
church (24 April 2011) The victims of Sunday's bombing were
policemen and civilian bystanders
BBC - At least four people have been injured after a bomb exploded
outside the entrance of a church in the centre of the Iraqi
capital, Baghdad.
The blast outside the church in the Karrada district broke its
windows and sent shrapnel flying.
The attack took place after worshippers at the Easter Sunday
service had left.
Iraqi Christians have been the victims of a spate of attacks,
including one on a Syrian cathedral in Baghdad last year that left
53 people dead.
There were once about 1.5 million Christians in Iraq, but more
than two-thirds are believed to have fled since the US-led
invasion in 2003.
Hundreds of families have also moved to the northern Kurdish
region.
'Full of fear'
The victims of Sunday's bombing were two policemen and two
civilian bystanders, security officials said.
But one official and a TV cameraman for the Reuters news agency
said four policemen and three bystanders were receiving treatment
in hospital.
Worshippers at the Easter Sunday service in the church in Baghdad
(24 April 2011) Worshippers who attended the Easter Sunday service
at the church had already left
One of the injured policemen, Hassan Dalli, said: "We had just
reached the scene to distribute food to the policemen there when
the bomb blew up."
There had been no specific threats issued before the attack, but
security was nevertheless stepped up on Easter Sunday outside
churches in the capital and two northern provinces where many
Christians live.
"Our life in Iraq is full of fear," Father Hanna Saad Sirop told
worshippers at St Joseph's Chaldean church in Baghdad.
"But we have to live in faith and trust... We have to trust
almighty God."
In other violence on Sunday, an army captain was killed by a
"sticky bomb" attached to a vehicle in the northern city of
Kirkuk, police said.