A wave of terror hit Tuesday in Iraq, Greece, and Germany, where officials discovered a parcel bomb at Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office as Americans went to the polls. At least 62 people died in a series of 10 bomb blasts at coffee shops and other public places in Iraq, two days after Al-Qaeda terrorists massacred 58 Christians in a Baghdad church.
No firm evidence connected the attacks with the U.S. elections, but Al-Qaeda might have timed the bombing attacks as a message to U.S. President Barack Obama, who faces a tidal wave of opposition of Americans wanting to curtail involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
In Baghdad, Patriarch Emanuel Ill Delly said “the devil’s hand" had struck the victims. He added, "We are not afraid of death and threats. We are the sons of this country and we will stay with our Muslim brothers in Iraq, hand-in-hand to glorify the name of Iraq," according to the French news agency AFP.
Al-Qaeda held the Christian worshippers as hostages on Sunday before the terrorists began their massacre when Iraqi special forces raided the church in an effort to rescue the worshippers. One priest was shot in the head after being told. "'Convert to Islam because in any case you will die.”
Tuesday’s attack involved at least 10 car bombs and four roadside bombs Tuesday evening, and killed more than 60 people and wounding more than 100 others.
In Germany, police found a bomb in a package at Chancellor Merkel’s office. Last week, a last minute tip-off to the United States by Saudi Arabia authorities led to the discovery of two potentially deadly bombs hidden in parcels sent by Al-Qaeda terrorists in Yemen and aimed at two Chicago synagogues.
In Greece, a mail bomb addressed to the Mexican embassy exploded en route, wounding one worker. One bomb exploded outside the Swiss embassy, and others were detonated at the Russian, Chilean and Bulgarian embassies in Athens.