Twenty-three people were injured when a car bomb exploded outside a Christian church in northern Iraq early yesterday, police said. Security forces found and disabled two more vehicles packed with explosives outside two other parishes.

The bombing and the two foiled attacks in the northern city of Kirkuk signal continued violence against Iraqi Christians, nearly one million of whom have fled since the war began in 2003.

“The terrorists want to make us flee Iraq, but they will fail,” said the Rev. Haithem Akram, the priest of one of the churches that was targeted.

“We are staying in our country. The Iraqi Christians are easy targets because they do not have militias to protect them. The terrorists want to terrorise us, but they will fail.”

The assault began at 6 a.m. local time, when the car blew up outside the Syrian Catholic church, severely damaging the church and nearby houses, said police Colonel Taha Salaheddin.

The parish’s leader, the Rev. Imad Yalda, was the only person inside at the time of the blast and was wounded. The 22 other casualties were people whose nearby homes were hit by the blast, said Kirkuk police chief Major General Jamal Tahir.