By Maher al-Thanoon

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Gunmen bombed two churches in the tense Iraqi city of Mosul Tuesday, fueling fears of ethnic and sectarian unrest ahead of an election next month.

The insurgent war of attrition against U.S. forces and their Iraqi proteges claimed another American life in Baghdad, taking the U.S. combat death toll to1,000 since last year's invasion.

The small Christian community of about 650,000 or some 3 percent of the population has suffered from an upsurge in militant Islam since the fall of Saddam's secular regime. Some have fled or closed down traditional businesses, notably selling liquor, which flourished in Iraq despite a Muslim religious ban.

At least one Christian leader has been quoted recently saying he would form an armed militia to protect the community.

"There were two or three families in the church," one frightened worshipper from Mosul's ancient Tahira Chaldean church told Reuters after the attack on the white stone building, some of which is said to date back to the 7th century.

"Gunmen came in, took the guard's weapon and a couple of mobile phones. Then they made everybody leave the church. After that there was an explosion that did a lot of damage," said the man, who asked not to be named for fear of intimidation.

Christians, possibly targeted partly because radical Muslims link them with the "crusader" invaders from America and Europe, have been attacked several times in the past four months.

Coordinated car bombings, four in Baghdad and one in Mosul, killed at least 12 people in August; five Baghdad churches were bombed on Oct. 16 at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. At least eight people were killed
in two church bombings in the capital on Nov. 8, and a car bomber attacked police guarding the hospital where the wounded had been taken.

Ankawa report:

According to Arabic www.ankawa.com two churches were bombed and burned today Tuesday 7 December.

1. Al Tahira Church in the Chaldean Bishopry of Mosul in the Alshafa area of Mosul. williamhom

2. Armenian new Church which was not opened yet in Al Wihda area of Mosul.

Gunmen entered the churches and asked all to leave and then bombing and setting fires. Firemen were prevented by gunmen from putting the fires down.

The Fox News

Mosul, Iraq - Militants bombed two churches Tuesday in Mosul (search), wounding three people in a coordinated attack apparently aimed at stirring trouble between religious groups in this ethnically diverse northern city.
Deputy provincial governor Khasro Gouran said o­ne blast struck a church about 2:30 p.m. in eastern Mosul's Wihda neighborhood, wounding three people.

An hour later, gunmen stormed a church in western Mosul, ordering a handful of people outside before bombing it, Gouran said. There were no casualties.
The religious denominations of the churches were not immediately clear. Islamic militants have regularly targeted different sectors of Iraq's multiethnic population, including the minority Christians, in a bid to disrupt the U.S.-led reconstruction of the war-scarred country.

In August, four churches in Baghdad and o­ne in Mosul were blown up in a coordinated series of car bombings, killing at least seven people and wounding dozens more in the first significant strike against Iraq's minority Christians since the U.S. invasion began last year. One person was killed and 11 injured in the August bombing in Mosul, where a minority Christian community has for long lived in harmony with the city's Sunni Arab majority, and many say they still do. Any hostility toward Christians was mostly kept in check under the toppled dictator, Saddam Hussein, who didn't allow militant Islamists to gain clout.