BAGHDAD: A string of bombings targeting Baghdad's Christian community killed at least four people and wounded 19 others Wednesday, officials said, less than two weeks after a bloody siege at a Baghdad church left scores dead. Police said at least 11 roadside bombs detonated within an hour of each other in three predominantly Christian areas of central Baghdad early Wednesday. Four of the blasts hit houses belonging to Christians, and two mortar rounds also struck Christian enclaves of the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Dora in south Baghdad. In all, four people were killed and 19 wounded, according to police and hospital officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. It was not immediately clear whether the dead were Christians. The violence underscores the threat to Iraq's minority Christian community still in shock after the massacre at a Catholic cathedral last week that left 58 people dead. Al-Qaeda militants claimed responsibility for that attack and threatened more violence against the Christians. Wednesday's attacks come after a similar series of bombings late Tuesday that hit three empty houses belonging to Christians in western Baghdad. No one was wounded in those blasts. – Associated Press Younadem Kana, a Christian member of the Iraqi parliament, condemned the violence and blamed police and military for failing to protect the Christian community despite boosting security measures at churches around the capital. “These attacks are not targeting only Christians, but also the government that has promised to protect the Christians,” Kana said. He added that Wednesday's bombings exposed “grave flaws in the structure and the work of Iraq's security forces.” He said attacks will continue as long as Iraq remains without a government that represents all Iraqis. The country's political leaders are to meet in Baghdad Wednesday for the third consecutive day for talks focused on the formation of a new government. Since the March 7 vote, Iraqi politicians have failed to agree on a government that would include the Sunni-backed coalition led by Ayad Allawi, which narrowly defeated Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki's Shiite-dominated bloc at the polls. At stake is whether Iraq has an inclusive government of both the majority Shiites and the minority Sunnis or a Shiite-dominated government with the Sunnis largely in opposition – a recipe that many worry will turn the country back to the sectarian violence of a few years ago. Even for a nation used to daily violence after years of war, the killings in Baghdad's main Catholic church of Our Lady of Salvation at the hands of militants shocked Iraqis. It was the worst attack against the country's Christian minority since the 2003-US led invasion unleashed fierce sectarian fighting between Iraq's Muslim Shiite and Sunni militias that killed tens of thousands of civilians. Grieving and afraid, many Iraqi Christians were saying after the church assault during the Nov. 1 Sunday Mass that they may join what Catholic officials estimate is more than one million of their brethren who have fled the country since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. Amal, a 50-year-old Christian resident of eastern Baghdad, who only gave her first name for fear of retribution, said the attacks won't succeed at driving Christians out of Iraq. “We are Iraqis and those attackers want us to leave,” said Amal, a mother of four. “We've lived in Iraq for so long. It our home.” Iraq's top Catholic prelate, Chaldean Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly has encouraged the country's remaining 1.5 million Christians to stay in the country. He called on the authorities for more protection. __
