Mystery shrouds attacks on Iraq's Christians

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - In a quiet neighborhood where pear trees and roses peep over garden walls, a shattered vase lies beside blocks of concrete and dust, all that is left of a Christian family's home blown up this month.
Around the way are the ruins of two other Christian-owned homes, nothing more than rubble piled under their roofs.
All three were bombed within minutes of one another, part of a campaign of violence this month that has caused at least 1,500 Christian families to flee the city, one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse in Iraq.
Neighbors say some of the families were ordered out by unknown men just minutes before their houses were destroyed.
Recent attacks and threats against Christians have caused alarm from Baghdad to the Vatican to the United Nations.
The violence brought to the fore the plight of a religious minority that numbers in the hundreds of thousands in mainly Muslim Iraq, and exposed rifts in a part of the country where ethnic diversity has created a delicate balance of power.
Local authorities say the fears of a wave of anti-Christian violence have been overblown to provoke panic, and predict that the families will soon return.More