Christian sisters murdered in Iraq

IRAQI CHRISTIANS who dared to return to their ancient city after a wave of violence and intimidation were said to be shocked after two sisters were stabbed to death when attackers broke into their home.
Lamyaa Sabih and her sister, Walaa, were murdered in the Alqahira residential area of the northern city of Mosul. Their mother, who lived with them. was also stabbed and is in a critical condition in hospital.
Police rushed to the scene and on arrival a police car was bombed. Three policemen were killed and the Sabih family's house was badly damaged. So far, nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place in Alqahira's Al Nien district.
Lamyaa was single but Walaa was married with two teenage children, a boy and a girl. The sisters, both in their 40s, had worked fora local provincial council since the 1980s and were known to be devout Syrian Catholics.
Initial reports received by Aid to the Church in Need, the charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, show how the incident has sparked fear and panic within the Christian community at a time of heightened anxiety about their safety. • Christians and other minorities are saying that the incident casts doubt on the Iraqi government's bid to improve security with a massively increased police presence in the city.
The extra police were sent in after a campaign of violence and intimidation against Christians last month prompted a mass exodus of more than 2,000 families from Mosul.
After repeated government assurances about improved security, people started to return to Mosul and it is now reported that up to 500 families have gone back over the past two weeks. Speaking from northern Iraq in an interview with ACN, Fr Bashar Wards, who has overseen the charity's emergency relief programmes for people fleeing Mosul. said the killings had a "dramatic" effect on the faithful, who now fear another wave of attacks against them.
Fr Warda said: 'It is clear that many would think of leaving Mosul again. The government is trying to say that the city is now safe and then suddenly you have incidents like this." He stressed that the incident had taken place in a region of tight security. Fr Warda said 'The police have acted very speedily to calm the situation but • it is clear the attackers knew what they were doing."
Iraqi Christian leaders say the attack shows the government is failing to deliver on its promises to deliver peace and security for vulnerable Church communities lacking militia and other means of self-protection and Whose only option in times of crisis is to flee. They are demanding that the West intervenes on their behalf, insisting on the protection not just of Christians but of all minority groups in Iraq.
One local Catholic leader said: "The government is trying to fool the outside world into thinking it is doing good things and that the Christians are safe. In reality the situation is really very challenging."
The incident comes after a series of setbacks for Christians in Iraq climaxing with last week's decision by the Iraqi parliament to offer them just three seats in the provincial elections of January 31 2009, 10 fewer than proposed in Article 50, which was dropped from a draft electoral bill in September.
Meanwhile, the US Army has returned the Pontifical Babel College for Philosophy and Theology in Baghdad to the Chaldean Catholic Church, promising to repair or replace anything damaged while US soldiers occupied the buildings. Vatican Radio reported. The seminarians, students and staff left the complex in January 2007.