Alghadeer shopping area after the bombing.
Baghdad, IraqCourtesy of Ankawa.com
The violent jihadist incursion into Iraq is suspected of attacks in Baghdad Sept. 10 that killed about 30 people and injured several others.
Three car bombs exploded minutes apart in Alghadeer, a Shi’ite neighbourhood in eastern Baghdad. The bombings occurred as US Secretary of State John Kerry visited the capital to offer support to Iraq’s new prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, in fighting the insurgent force, which calls itself the Islamic State.
Engaged
Iraqi
couple.
Essam
Elsamak
and his
fiancée
Raghda
Adel.
She was
killed in
the
bombing.
Courtesy of Ankawa.com
Among the victims were a Christian couple who had become engaged Sept. 4. The man, Essam Elsamak, survived while his fiancée, Raghda Adel, mother Maha Sallem Elsamak and three-year-old nephew Ouday Imad, were killed. The bombing occurred in the evening while they were walking in an Alghadeer shopping area.
“These last explosions were so close, we were about to die,” said a 40 year-old Christian woman who lives in lghadeer. “I don’t know if we will make it abroad or dying here. We can’t stand living in horror here anymore!”
World Watch Monitor is withholding the woman’s name for security purposes.
“My husband and I were about to enter the market that evening, but seeing it so crowded my husband told me to go home,” she said. “Only 10 minutes after returning home, we heard a huge explosion and another one after it. My 15-year-old daughter started to cry, as she always gets shocked when she hears explosions nearby our house. She is so scared, and so is my 17-year-old son.”
“There is no future for us as Christians in Baghdad,” she said. “I will prevent my two children from
Elsamak
and her
three-year-old
grandson
Ouday Imad
were killed
in the
bombing.
Courtesty of Ankawa.com
going to school this year as the way to go out is dangerous. We want to leave, and we hear daily about other Christians who are getting visas and travelling abroad.”