On the eve of Saturday September 11, 2004, a car bomb exploded outside the Virgin Mary Seventh-Day Adventist Church in the Al-Sa'doun Park in the center of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

According to eyewitnesses, it was difficult to know firsthand whether the explosion was an act of a suicide bomber or the car exploded by remote control. The explosion caused a great deal of damage to the church shattering glass windows, but harming no one, according to the priest and an Interior Ministry spokesman. Many of the surrounding buildings as well as a number of cars parked nearby the Church were damaged. Sources in the Iraqi police attempted to downplay this new attack on the Iraqi Christians by suggesting that the actual target was the building of the Swedish embassy across from the church, especially since the church was closed at the time of the explosion.

"Nobody was injured, thank God," Fr. Uwaida Wahba, the priest of the Church, told Reuters. "It was a cowardly act." Later in his comments, Fr. Wahba mentioned that the explosion forced the community to cancel the Mass to be held on Saturday.

Many Assyrians believe that the attackers were targeting the Christian community in this terrorist attack. The terrorists seemed to know the Christian community very well. Last month, the attacks on 5 Churches in Baghdad and Mosul were staged on Sunday during the time when worshippers gathered in the Churches for Sunday's Mass. However, this recent attack targeted the Adventist Christians on the eve of Saturday rather than Sunday. Saturday is regarded as the sacred day for Seventh-Day Adventists and their main weekly Mass is always held on Saturday rather than Sunday. It is such well-thought out attacks that have caused over 40,000 Iraqi Assyrian Christians to flee to Syria and Jordan.

Assyrian Christians in Iraq have continued to be marginalized, whether under Saddam Hussein's rule or the newly formed Iraqi government. Iraqi Christians are estimated to be 6-8% of the Iraqi population, yet of 36 government and ministry positions, only 1 seat was given to the Assyrian Christians. The Minister of Emigration and Displacement, Pascale Isho Warda, is the only Assyrian Christian minister in the newly formed Iraqi government.