IRAQ (ACN News): A leading Catholic bishop in Iraq has spoken of his people’s shock and courage after a car bomb outside a church left 13 people injured.
Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk said he and his faithful “will never stop witnessing to Christ” in spite of the bomb which went off directly outside the Holy Family Syrian Catholic Church in Shaterlo, a poor and densely populated district in northern Kirkuk.
The explosion on August 2 was so severe that people asleep in nearby homes were injured by falling glass and other debris.
According to reports received by Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, the 13 people injured in the blast included a 20-day-old baby.
Fr Imad Yelda, from Holy Family Church, was also slightly hurt.
Of those injured, all but one – an elderly man – were released from hospital soon after receiving treatment for cuts and other minor ailments.
A number of homes were damaged in the blast.
The explosion was made worse because the car bomb exploded next to an electricity generator close to Holy Family Church.
The blast blew a hole in the side of the church.
In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Archbishop Sako said the devastation could have been far more serious with reports of a bomb that failed to detonate close to another church in Kirkuk.
Respected Catholic news agency AsiaNews reported local sources claiming a second bomb was found in a car parked near a Presbyterian Evangelical church at al Mass, in central Kirkuk.
The bomb was reportedly ready to explode but was defused.
Archbishop Sako said: “We are very shocked. To attack a holy place such as a church makes the crime serious and to attack it during the holy season – Ramadan – makes it even worse.
“To attack and to put people’s lives at risk in this way is a sin.”
The archbishop said “despite what has happened, we will never give up”.
“We will continue our mission. We will never stop witnessing to Christ,” he said.
He said that the attack came in the middle of a summer conference held in Kirkuk cathedral for students to examine religious and other subjects.
“The day before the attack, we had 150 people at the conference. After it happened, I asked if they would come back to continue and they did. This is a very important sign of hope,” Archbishop Sako said.
Kirkuk, which has a population of 900,000, is at the centre of an ethnic-political struggle between Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds.
The latter want the city annexed to Kurdistan, while Arabs and Turkmen want it to remain under the control of Iraq’s central government.
