US Iraq envoy condemns attacks near churches

The senior United Nations envoy to Iraq yesterday condemned a series of deadly explosions carried out in coordinated sequence in the vicinity of churches in Baghdad and Kirkuk.

The attacks, which caused the death and injury of many innocent Iraqis, constituted "a reprehensible act that can only exacerbate sectarian violence," Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, said in a statement issued in the Iraqi capital.