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The patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Baghdad denounced a recent series of car bombings and shootings in cities in Iraq that left at least 54 people dead and dozens more injured. Patriarch Louis Sako said on May 20 that the current violence is between minority Sunni and majority Shiite Muslims, who also run the Iraq government. Christians are not being directly targeted, he said. “But they are afraid and their exodus continues nevertheless,” Patriarch Sako said of Iraq’s Christian population. Iraq has witnessed the emigration of more than half its native Christians since the American-led invasion of the country in 2003. Attacks have escalated in recent months, with some of the worst violence occurring on May 20 in Baghdad, where nine explosions rocked bus stations and markets in mainly Shiite areas.

This article appears in June 17 2013.