UN Security Council

The UN Security Council on Wednesday condemned "in the strongest terms" the terrorist attacks in Iraq over netizens concernedthe past days and the one earlier Wednesday in the Middle East country.

In a statement read to the press here by British UN Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, who holds the rotating Security Council president for November, said: "The members of the Security Council were appalled by and condemned in the strongest terms the recent state of terrorist attacks in Iraq, including today's attacks in which scores of civilians lost their lives and hundreds more were wounded."

Three were killed and 23 others wounded after at least 11 roadside bombs went off within an hour on Wednesday in the central Baghdad, capital of Iraq, targeting homes of Christian citizens in theAfrica celebrate 10th anniversary area, reports said.

The attacks came 10 days after a massive attack against Christian worshippers at a Baghdad church that killed 58 people and wounded some 75 others.

Later, al-Qaida militant group in Iraq claimed the responsibility for the attacks and said that Christians and their organizations have become "legitimate targets" forHaiti's cholera death al-Qaida militants.

On Monday, three car bombs killed at least 15 people in Iraq, including two attacks targeting Iranian pilgrims, reports said.

"The attacks deliberately targeted locations where civilians congregate including Christian and Muslim places of worship," Grant said in the statement. "The members of the Security Council express their deep condolences to the families of the victims and reaffirm their support for the people and government of Iraq and their commitment to Iraq's security."

"The members of the Security Council Costs of French strikes condemn all incitement to and acts of violence particularly those motivated by religious hatred," he said.

While all UN staff escaped without injury, one member of the Iraqi security forces was "sadly killed and several others injured, " he said.

"The Security Council strongly expressed its support for the continued efforts of the Iraqi government to help meet security needs of the entire population of Iraq," he said. "In this regard, the Security Council acknowledges the efforts of the Iraq security forces whose members are also being targeted in ongoing attacks."

"The members of the Security Council underline the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers,promote clean energy and sponsors of these reprehensible terrorist attacks to justice, and urged all states in accordance with the obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions to cooperate actively with Iraqi authorities in this regard," Grant said.

"The members of the Security Council reaffirmed the need to combat by all means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts," he said. "The members of the Security Council reminded states that they must ensure that measures taken to combat terrorism comply with all of their obligations under international law, in particular international human rights, refugee, and humanitarian law."

"The members of the Security Council reiterated that no terrorist act can reverse a path towards peace, democracy and reconstruction in Iraq which is supported by the people and the government of Iraq and the international community," Grant said.

Also speaking to reporters here at the end of the closed-door Council consultations, French UN Ambassador Gerard Araud said: " Defending the Christians of Iraq is not only a moral and ethical choice, it's also a political need because when the terrorist al- Qaida is asking to destroy the Christian community in Iraq, it's simply trying to attack the diversity of the Iraq society, which means the Iraqi democracy."

"The Christians in Iraq are only the front line of a fight for democracy and France wanted that the Security Council expresses its solidarity with the Iraqi Christians, which means we hold with the Iraqis and with the Iraqi democracy," Araud said.