Christians targeted in Baghdad attack
10 November 2010 Last updated at 08:11 GMT
BBC News.
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A series of bombings and mortar attacks targeting Christians have killed at least three people in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, security sources say.
Six separate areas with a strong Christian majority were hit, and at least 24 people have been injured.
The attacks come days after more than 40 people died when Islamist militants seized a Catholic cathedral.
The violence comes as top-level talks on ending the country's political crisis ended without agreement.
Iraq now holds the world record for the longest time without a government after inconclusive elections earlier this year.
"Two mortar shells and 10 homemade bombs targeted the homes of Christians in different neighbourhoods of Baghdad between 0600 and 0800 (0300 and 0500 GMT)," an unnamed official told AFP news agency.
An interior ministry source, quoted anonymously by Reuters, said the attacks were directly linked to the siege of the cathedral.
"These operations, which targeted Christians, came as a continuation of the attack that targeted the Salvation church," the source said.
The BBC's Jim Muir, in Baghdad, says the intention is clear - to give meaning to the threat that all Christians in the country are now a legitimate target.
The attacks came a day after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki visited the Syriac Catholic cathedral where 44 Christian worshippers, two priests and seven security forces personnel died after it was seized by Islamist militants and then stormed by troops.
Over the weekend, a senior Iraqi cleric in London called on Iraqi Christians to flee the country because it was so dangerous.
"If we stay, they will kill us," Archbishop Athanasios Dawood said after addressing a congregation of Iraqi Orthodox Christians at a service in the UK capital.
Christians - many from from ancient denominations - have been leaving Iraq in droves since the US-led invasion in 2003, and about 600,000 remain. (bbc news)
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