Car bomb targets Christian student’s bus near Mosul

Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Another targeted attack on the Christian minority.  Iraqi police said the two attacks took place yesterday in the north, where the community decimated by years of religious persecution now live en masse. The attackers used a car bomb and improvised explosive device, detonated by the passage of buses carrying students residing in the town of Hamdaniya, 40 km east of Mosul. The toll is of 100 wounded and one person dead, a Christian, owner of a shop located near the site of the explosions.

The students, all Christians, "we were traveling by bus from the University of Mosul, despite constant threats under which they live," said Nissan Karoumi, Mayor of Hamdaniya. For over five years the University of Mosul has been in the sights of Islamic extremist groups fighting for the conversion of young students. Often leaflets circulate in the university that promise to "kill every Iraqi woman who does not wear the veil" and anyone wearing "Western" clothes.

Mosul itself has long been the most dangerous area of Iraq for the Christian minority.  The Diaspora increases daily and many now argue that the city may soon become completely Muslim, if authorities do not take serious measures to curb the violence and punish those responsible for attacks that mostly remain unknown.

The political and sectarian tension is rising and the parliamentary elections of 7 March, have not yet shown a real winner. The country is in the grips of a power vacuum, while the various factions fight for a place in the new government, under pressure from rival outside powers like Iran and Saudi Arabia.