BAGHDAD - Militants in Iraq targeted Christians in three Christmas Day bombings in Baghdad, killing at least 37 people, officials said Wednesday.
In one attack, a car bomb went off near a church in the capital’s southern Dora neighborhood, killing at least 26 people and wounding 38, a police officer said.
Earlier, two bombs ripped through a nearby outdoor market simultaneously in the Christian section of Athorien, killing 11 people and wounding 21, the officer said.
The Iraq-based leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Louis Sako, said the parked car bomb exploded after Christmas Mass and that none of the worshippers was hurt. Sako said he didn’t believe the church was the target.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but Iraq’s dwindling Christian community, which is estimated to number about 400,000 to 600,000 people, often has been targeted by al-Qaida and other insurgents who see the Christians as heretics.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad condemned the attacks in a statement.
“The Christian community in Iraq has suffered deliberate and senseless targeting by terrorists for many years, as have many other innocent Iraqis,” the statement said. “The United States abhors all such attacks and is committed to its partnership with the government of Iraq to combat the scourge of terrorism.”
Wednesday’s bombings came during an extensive military operation in Iraq’s western desert as authorities try to hunt down insurgents who have stepped up attacks across Iraq in the past months, sending violence to levels not seen since 2008.
The Christmas Day attacks raised the number of people killed so far this month in Iraq to 441. According to United Nations estimates, more than 8,000 people have been killed since the start of the year.
According to a report in The New York Times, the United States is quietly rushing dozens of Hellfire missiles and low-tech surveillance drones to Iraq to help government forces combat the explosion of violence.
Iraq’s foreign minister has floated the idea of having U.S.-operated, armed Predator or Reaper drones respond to the expanding militant network. But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is positioning himself to run for a third term as prime minister, has not formally requested such intervention.
For now, the new lethal aid from the United States includes a shipment of 75 Hellfire missiles, which were delivered to Iraq last week to replenish a reportedly almost empty stockpile. The weapons are strapped beneath the wings of small Cessna turboprop planes and fired at militant camps with the CIA secretly providing targeting assistance.
In addition, 10 ScanEagle reconnaissance drones are expected to be delivered to Iraq by March. The United States also is planning to send 48 Raven reconnaissance drones before the end of 2014 and to deliver next fall the first of the F-16 fighters Iraq has bought.
Information for this article was contributed by Sinan Salaheddin of The Associated Press, by Yasir Ghazi, Michael R. Gordon, Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt of The New York Times and by Paul Richter of the Tribune Washington Bureau.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 12/26/2013