WASHINGTON (ABP) -- An apparently coordinated series of bomb attacks Jan. 29 targeted Iraq's Christian minority, killing three and injuring more.

Bombs exploded within minutes of each other during Sunday services at two churches in the northern city of Kirkuk. At the city's Orthodox church, a car bomb killed one and wounded five. Minutes later, another bomb at a Chaldean Catholic church killed two and injured several.

Attacks also targeted churches and the Vatican Embassy in Baghdad, but those attacks did not kill or injure anyone.

Gen. Burhan Tayyib of the nation's police told the Washington Post the attacks were "a message from the terrorists [intended] to create sectarian strife."

Estimates of the number of Christians in Iraq vary, but the nation has long had one of the largest Christian populations in the Middle East. Under Saddam Hussein's regime, they enjoyed a relatively high level of religious freedom. However, the political instability that has engulfed Iraq since American forces deposed Hussein in 2003 has led to an increase in anti-Christian attacks.

Many Iraqi Christians have fled the country since Hussein's fall. Some remaining in the country have complained of being overlooked as U.S. officials attempt to rebuild the fractious nation and broker peace deals and power-sharing agreements among competing factions of Iraqi Muslims.

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