Militants in Iraq targeted Christians in two separate bomb attacks in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 22 people, officials said.
In one attack, a car bomb went off near a church during Christmas Mass in the capital's southern Dora neighbourhood, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 30, a police officer said.
A short time earlier, a bomb ripped through an outdoor market in the nearby Christian section of Athorien, killing seven people and wounding 16, the officer added.
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, has often been targeted by al-Qaida and other insurgents who see the Christians as unbelievers.
The Christmas Day attacks brought the total number of people killed so far this month in Iraq to 426. According to U.N. estimates, more than 8,000 people have been killed since the start of the year.
Iraqi Christians attend a Christmas mass in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city,
340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Dec
25, 2013. Militants on Wednesday launched two separate attacks against
Christians in Baghdad, killing more than a dozen people, officials said.
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