"Since Tuesday evening, there have been 13 bombs and two mortar attacks on homes and shops of Christians in which a total of six people were killed and 33 injured," a defence ministry official said. "A church was also damaged."

The attacks come less than two weeks after 44 Christian worshippers, two priests and seven security personnel died in the seizure of the Baghdad church by Islamist gunmen and the ensuing shootout when it was stormed by troops.

On November 3, Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the hostage-taking at the capital's Syrian Catholic cathedral and warned it would step up attacks on Christians.

The UN Security Council said it was "appalled by, and condemned in the strongest terms, the recent spate of terrorist attacks in Iraq, including today's."

The campaign of violence against Christians "potentially poses a threat to diversity in the Middle East, which was one of the fundamental bedrocks of stability," said British ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, reading the council statement.

French ambassador Gerard Araud said Al-Qaeda's bomb and shooting attacks were part of "a deliberate will to destroy the Christian community."

As Christians converged on their churches on Wednesday to seek counsel from their religious leaders, the capital's Syrian Catholic archbishop made an emotional appeal for Western countries to come to their rescue.

"It would be criminal on the part of the international community not to take care of the security of the Christians," Athanase Matti Shaba Matoka said inside the church targeted on October 31 where he tried to console his flock.

"Everybody is scared," he said. "People are asking who is going to protect them, how are they going to stay on in Iraq. We are trying to encourage them to stay patient."

Vatican secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone described the latest attacks as "very painful."

The protection of Iraqi Christians is an issue that "we hope... will be taken into serious consideration" by the Baghdad government, Italian news agencies quoted him as saying.

The scarred Syrian Catholic cathedral in the central district of Karrada has become a focus of the fears of Christian families.

"For the past two years now, my wife has been trying to persuade me to leave the country but I didn't agree," said 42-year-old labourer Raed Wissam from the Dora district of south Baghdad.

"Today, I feel sure she's right because I don't want to feel guilty if something bad happens to one of my children."

Wissam said he was woken up at 6:00 am (0300 GMT) by an explosion. "I ran up to the roof to see what was going on and I heard three more blasts, with three Christian homes targeted. My two children wept."

Emmanuel Karim, a 27-year-old IT worker, was about to go to work from his home in Camp Sara, central Baghdad, when a bomb exploded. The apparent target was the car of his uncle, who was among those killed on October 31.

"Fifteen minutes later, a second bomb exploded, killing a neighbour who was trying to put out the fire in the car... He was a Muslim. He was my friend," said Karim, fighting back the tears.

He said the faithful were gathering at churches to try to join the Christian exodus which has been picking up pace since the 2003 invasion of now violence-plagued Iraq, where their community's roots date back two millenia.

Monsignor Pius Kasha, also of the church in the hostage-taking at the end of last month, said a four-month-old baby was among three people wounded in bombings of Christian homes in Baghdad's Mansur district late on Tuesday.

"We don't know what is the aim of these criminals but what is certain is that this will push even more Christians to emigrate"

A senior Iraqi clergyman based in London said at the weekend that Christians should quit Iraq or face being killed at the hands of Al-Qaeda.

But Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday cautioned foreign governments not to encourage Christians to abandon their homeland, after France took in dozens of people wounded in the cathedral attack.

An estimated 800,000 Christians lived in Iraq before the US-led invasion but that number has since shrunk to around 500,000 in the face of repeated attacks against their community and churches.

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