Two attacks on Christian families in the city of Kirkuk on Sunday evening left three people dead and two others wounded, police said.
The first occurred in a neighborhood in southern Kirkuk when a Christian woman and her daughter-in-law were murdered in their home late night Sunday. Police told CNN the attackers slit the women’s throats. In a neighborhood close by, gunmen attacked a Christian family in their home, shooting a father and his three sons, police said. One of the sons died instantly and the other son and the father were wounded. Many of Iraq’s estimated 1 million Christians have fled the country after targeted attacks by extremists. In October, more than a thousand Iraqi families fled the northern city of Mosul after they were reportedly frightened by a series of killings and threats by Muslim extremists, who apparently ordered them to convert to Islam or face possible death.
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At least 14 Christians were killed in Mosul in the first two weeks of October. Kirkuk is 150 miles (240 km) north of Baghdad.
