Bombs explode outside Iraq churches, 7 wounded

BAGHDAD, July 12 (Reuters) - Bombs exploded outside three Christian churches across Baghdad on Sunday and one wounded seven people, Iraqi police said.

The bombs, placed in cardboard boxes, went off near the gates of the churches in Ghadir and Karrada districts of central and eastern Baghdad. In two of the attacks, no one was wounded. In the third, seven people were wounded, police said.

The bloodshed that followed the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 has largely faded, but violence continues, especially in ethnically and religiously mixed areas.

Iraq's Christians, believed to number around 750,000, are a small minority in a mainly Muslim country of around 28 million. Christians have been sporadically targeted for attacks, particularly in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul, leading many of them to flee abroad.