My Life and Times

October 17, 2004
6 U.S. Servicemen Die in Iraq; 5 Churches Are AttackedBy RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
AGHDAD, Iraq, Sunday, Oct. 17 - Scattered violence erupted across Iraq on the first weekend of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, as six United States servicemen were killed in car bombings and helicopter crashes.
Five Christian churches in Baghdad were firebombed early on Saturday morning in what appeared to be coordinated attacks, the latest effort by insurgents to terrorize the relatively small population of Christians in Iraq.
Two military helicopters crashed at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday in southwest Baghdad, killing two soldiers and injuring two others, the military reported. American officials declined to say whether the crash appeared to be caused by an accident or an act of aggression. More than two dozen military helicopters have been downed in Iraq since the end of major combat was declared 17 months ago.
The crash followed two deadly car bombings in northern and western Iraq that killed four servicemen on Friday. One attack, in Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq, killed a soldier after an improvised bomb packed into a vehicle exploded near a military convoy at 1:20 p.m.
On Friday night, a suicide bomber driving a explosive-laden vehicle killed a marine, two soldiers, and their civilian translator near the restive town of Qaim in western Iraq near the Syrian border, said Maj. Kris Meyle of the Air Force, a military spokeswoman in Baghdad. Another soldier was also wounded, she said.
In addition, the news agency Agence France-Presse reported on Saturday night that a statement attributed to a terror group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant believed to be responsible for attacks on Iraqi civilians and American soldiers , claimed the group had beheaded 11 Iraqi police and national guardsmen. The authenticity of the statement could not be verified, however, and there was no confirmation of the report.
The new Iraqi security forces continue to be vulnerable targets for insurgents. On Friday, a suicide bomber in southern Baghdad driving a vehicle loaded with 300 pounds of explosives tried to attack a patrol of Iraqi police but missed, killing 10 bystanders instead.
American officials had been bracing for widespread violence during the monthlong Ramadan holiday, which began Friday. On the first day of Ramadan last year, insurgents killed at least 34 people in Baghdad in coordinated assaults that included bombing the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross and four police stations.
No one was killed or injured in the church bombings on Saturday, Iraqi officials said. But the damage was heavy in some places, including a Catholic church in the prosperous neighborhood of Karada, where fires after the explosion burned the length of the sanctuary and blew out large sections of roof and wall. The Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman, Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman, said the five churches were all attacked with improvised explosive devices between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m.
The attacks continue a campaign of terror against Iraq's 800,000 Christians, an effort that took its most violent turn on Aug. 1 when car bombers attacked five churches in Baghdad and Mosul during Sunday evening Mass, killing at least 12 people.
Of the five churches struck on Saturday, two were in Dora, in southern Baghdad; the others were in Mansur, the upscale neighborhood just west of central Baghdad; Karada, in southeastern Baghdad; and near the Shurta tunnel in western Baghdad. At the still-smoldering St. George's Church in Karada, the caretaker, Nabil Jamil, said an American military official had come by at about 5 p.m. on Friday and warned that there had been threats against Christian churches.
Thousands of Christians have already emigrated to Syria and other nations, and many who remain fear rising efforts to pressure them to leave. "Iraqi Christians are suffering a lot now," said Audet Abdal, 48, who lives behind St. George's Church, which she has attended since her youth. "We can't wear crosses or show signs of Christianity."
Mr. Jamil said the 4 a.m. blast tore through concrete to form a semicircular impact crater four feet wide at the entrance to the 58-year-old church and ignited a raging fire that burned almost an hour. The sanctuary was demolished, its walls and ceiling blackened with soot and charred embers strewn about the floor.
Still, Mr. Jamil said, Mass would be said Sunday. But he said he had no idea whether the church could be rebuilt. "It will be very difficult," he said. "We don't have money."
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