2 Iraqi towns cancel Christmas festivities

[December 22, 2010]  BAGHDAD (AP) -- Church officials in Iraq say they have canceled some Christmas festivities in two northern cities over fears of insurgent attacks.

The Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Kirkuk, Louis Sako, says church officials will not put up Christmas decorations outside the church and urged worshippers to refrain from decorating homes.

He says the traditional Santa Claus appearance outside one of the city's churches has also been called off.

In Mosul, Syrian Orthodox priest Faiz Wadee says Christmas celebrations there have also been canceled.

Christians across Iraq have been living in fear following a Baghdad church attack in October that left 68 people dead.

An al-Qaida front group in Iraq threatened more attacks against Iraq's Christians in a statement Wednesday.

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THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.
AP's earlier story is below.

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BAGHDAD (AP) -- Al-Qaida's front group in Iraq is threatening more attacks against the country's Christians unless two women it claims Egypt's Coptic Church is holding captive are released.

The Islamic State of Iraq issued the warning in a message posted late Tuesday on a website frequented by Islamist extremists.

The group has made similar threats in the past linked to claims of Egypt's Muslim extremists that the country's Coptic Church is holding women captive for converting to Islam. The church denies the allegations.

The message was addressed to Iraq's Christian community to "pressure" Egypt.

The Islamic State of Iraq was behind a recent series of attacks, including the siege of a Baghdad church that left 68 people dead. Some 1,000 Christian families have fled Iraq since then, according to the U.N.

[Associated Press]

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