MANY Christians stayed away from Mass in Baghdad yesterday after homemade bombs caused extensive damage at five churches in the city.

The bombs exploded in quick succession in four neighbourhoods before dawn on Saturday. The devices caused no casualties, but further alarmed the Christian minority community, which was already living in fear over the perceived rise of Islamic militancy after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

“It is a criminal act to make Iraq unstable and to create religious difficulties,” the Rev Zaya Yousef, of St George’s Church, said. “But this will not happen because we all live together like brothers.”

No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, which were condemned by the Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni clerical group believed to have ties to some insurgents. “Islam doesn’t support the ongoing terrorism,” Sheik-Abdul Sattar Abdul-Jabbar, of the association, said.

In August co-ordinated attacks hit four churches in Baghdad and one in Mosul, killing at least twelve people and wounding dozens more in the first significant strike against Iraq’s estimated 800,000 Christians since the US-led invasion began last year. Christians are fleeing Baghdad for the safety of the Kurdish north or neighbouring Syria and Jordan.

The latest explosions “will no doubt push people to emigrate”, Father Raphael Qutaimi, acting bishop of the Syrian Catholic Church, said.

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