Twin terrorist attacks on St. Mary’s Cathedral in Baghdad

Twin terrorist attacks on St. Mary’s Cathedral in Baghdad
Baghdad – Sunday 24/09/2006

ANA- Translation and Media desk

The St. Mary’s Cathedral of the Ancient Church of the East in al-Riyadh district was the scene of a double terrorist attack this morning, first a hand grenade was thrown and a few minutes later a car bomb exploded. At 10:00 a.m. as the faithful were leaving the Church following Sunday’s Mass, an explosive charge exploded under the care of Father Ezaria Warda which was parked near the main door (some eye witnesses mentioned that a hand grenade was thrown at the car from a passing by car) The first explosion resulted in some casualties which made people gather and a police patrol arrived at the scene, moments later a car which was parked on the other side of the narrow street exploded which caused the number of casualties to rise.
The losses so far in the Baghdad hospitals are:
1- One of the Church’s guards Joseph Eshoo was killed.
2- The second victim is a child whose identity isn’t known yet.
3- 17 wounded, 9 are of the faithful who belong to the church; two of them are in critical condition.
4- The leg of one of the wounded was amputated and the doctors were obliged to remove the eye of another victim, four citizens and four police officers were injured as well.
The Cathedral is the headquarters of H.H. Mar Addai II, the Church’s Patriarch as well as Fathers Ezaria Warda and Zaia Edwar but they weren’t hurt. The Cathedral is also a home for the Church’s magazine The Horizon. In addition to the human losses, the Cathedral was badly damaged, five cars were burnt, and others were damaged.
Ancient Church of the East/Information Section
Arabic source: Ankawa.com

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