Bombers target Iraq's Christians

• At least 12 dead in car bomb attacks on 5 churches in Baghdad and Mosul

• Blasts timed to coincide with evening prayers

• Attacks intent to cause sectarian tension within Iraq

Key quote

"It is terrible and worrying because it is the first time that Christian churches are being targeted in Iraq. There seems to be an attempt to heighten tensions by trying to affect all social groups, including churches" - Father Ciro Benedettini, Vatican deputy spokesman.

Story in full CAR bombs exploded outside at least five Christian churches in Iraq on Sunday, killing up to a dozen people and wounding many more in an apparently co-ordinated attack timed to coincide with evening prayers.

Four blasts rocked churches in Baghdad and two in the northern city of Mosul. 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 bomber drove into the car park at a Chaldean church in southern Baghdad before detonating his vehicle, killing up to 12 people as worshippers left the building, witnesses said.

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.

"It is terrible and worrying because it is the first time that Christian churches are being targeted in Iraq," said the Vatican deputy spokesman, Father Ciro Benedettini. "There seems to be an attempt to heighten tensions by trying to affect all social groups, including churches," he said.

A US military spokesman said three of the four attacks in Baghdad were known to be suicide car bombings.

An explosion at the Armenian church in Baghdad shattered stained glass windows and hurled chunks of hot metal.

Another bomb exploded 15 minutes later outside the nearby Assyrian church, where medics dragged a man from a car, his arm almost torn off.

"Worshippers were inside the church and during the service a bomb went off," said Shakib Moussa Jibrail, a Christian who said his father had been inside the Assyrian church. "Now he is in hospital. His head was hit."

An ambulance driver said that two people were killed in the explosion at the Assyrian church and several others were wounded.

US Colonel Mike Murray, of the 1st Cavalry Division, said that 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.

There are about 800,000 Christians in Iraq, most of them in Baghdad. Several recent attacks have targeted alcohol sellers throughout Iraq, the majority of whom are Christians of either the Assyrian, Chaldean or Armenian denominations.

Christians account for about 3 per cent of the population of Iraq, where attempts to provoke conflict have mainly focused on Sunni Muslims and members of the Shiite Muslim majority, who were oppressed by Saddam Hussein.

The US military says that a computer disk captured earlier this year contained a letter from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant allied to al-Qaeda, calling for attacks on Iraqi Shiites to try to spark sectarian conflict in Iraq.

In March, co-ordinated suicide bombings during a Shiite religious ceremony killed more than 170 in Baghdad and Kerbala.

Earlier yesterday, a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle outside a police station in Mosul, killing at least five and wounding 53 in the latest strike against Iraqi security forces.

Witnesses said the Toyota Landcruiser raced towards a police checkpoint as guards screamed at the driver to stop. When he did not, they opened fire, killing him. But the car ploughed on and detonated about 60 feet from the police station.

"I was waiting for a taxi when the car approached at high speed," said Younis al-Hadidi, 32, a witness. "It blew up in the middle of everyone."

Police said four of the five killed were police officers and the wounded were both civilians and police. Doctors said many of the wounded were badly hurt and the death toll could rise.

Sunday’s bombings came four days after an attack outside a police recruiting centre in Baquba, north of Baghdad, killed 70 people.

Police are frequently targeted by guerrillas who regard them as collaborators with US forces.

The attacks followed another night of clashes between US forces and guerrillas in the rebellious city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, in which at least ten Iraqis died and 35 were wounded, a doctor at the main hospital said.

There were conflicting reports over the fate of three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian taken hostage in Iraq this month and threatened by their captors with execution.

In Nairobi, Chirau Ali Mwakwere, the Kenyan foreign minister, had told a news conference that guerrillas had released the seven hostages.

But their Kuwaiti employers and an Iraqi mediator negotiating their release said they were still in captivity.

Scores of hostages from two dozen countries have been seized by kidnappers in the past four months.