Iraqi Christians celebrate mass
- 12 years ago
Hundreds of Iraqi Christians attend Christmas mass in Saint Joseph Church in central Baghdad.
Numbering around 1.5 million before the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, it's estimated that only around half a million Christians remain in the country.
While most of the sectarian fighting that has blighted the country since 2003 has been between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, attacks on Christians have increased in recent years.
A few days after the official U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, some Christians say they did not feel protected under the Americans.
(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) IRAQI CHRISTIAN, SHAHAD MAHFOUDH, SAYING:
"It is not the Americans' business to protect us Christians. They are Americans and when they invaded Iraq, they did not differentiate between Christian and Iraqi. When they bombed us, they bombed us all together and when they invaded us, they invaded us all together. So, the Americans did not come to protect us or protect the others. When they invaded us, they had their own motivations and interests. I never felt that they protected me, but the opposite."
Most Christians in the largely Muslim country are Syrian or Chaldean Catholics.
Nick Rowlands, Reuters.
Numbering around 1.5 million before the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, it's estimated that only around half a million Christians remain in the country.
While most of the sectarian fighting that has blighted the country since 2003 has been between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, attacks on Christians have increased in recent years.
A few days after the official U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, some Christians say they did not feel protected under the Americans.
(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) IRAQI CHRISTIAN, SHAHAD MAHFOUDH, SAYING:
"It is not the Americans' business to protect us Christians. They are Americans and when they invaded Iraq, they did not differentiate between Christian and Iraqi. When they bombed us, they bombed us all together and when they invaded us, they invaded us all together. So, the Americans did not come to protect us or protect the others. When they invaded us, they had their own motivations and interests. I never felt that they protected me, but the opposite."
Most Christians in the largely Muslim country are Syrian or Chaldean Catholics.
Nick Rowlands, Reuters.