A powerful jihadist group claimed a dual bombing at a Shiite political rally in Baghdad on Friday, according to a statement posted on jihadist forums, just days before national elections.

"Abu Aisha al-Iraqi and Abu Osama al-Iraqi… managed to enter a gathering of infidels… during their parade in Sadr City and blew up their suicide belts," said the statement attributed to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The statement derisively referred to the group targeted, the political wing of the Asaib Ahel al-Haq (League of the Righteous) militia, as the League of the Vain.

It said the attack was carried out "in revenge for what the Safavid militias are doing in Iraq and Sham (the Levant), killing and torturing and displacing Sunnis", using a pejorative term for Iraq's Shiite majority, linking it to the Safavid empire that once ruled neighbouring Iran.

The League of the Righteous is widely linked to militias taking part in fighting mostly Sunni rebels in Syria, where a years-long civil war has polarised the Middle East's various sectarian communities, particularly in multi-confessional Iraq.

Christians face 'disaster' in Iraq: church leader
Kirkuk, Iraq (AFP) April 26, 2014 –

Iraq's dwindling Christian community faces "disaster," and if no action is taken they will number just a few thousand in a decade, the country's most senior church leader told AFP.

Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako said the daily migration of Christians from Iraq was "terrifying" and blamed a range of factors, including generally poor security in the country and worsening religious extremism.

Iraq's Christian community is a shadow of what it used to be — once numbering more than a million nationwide, with upwards of 600,000 in Baghdad alone, there are now fewer than 400,000 across the country.

"The daily migration of Christians from Iraq is terrifying and very worrying," Sako told AFP from the ethnically-mixed northern city of Kirkuk on Friday evening.

"The church is facing a disaster, and if the situation continues along this course, our numbers in the coming 10 years will be not more than a few thousand."

Sako blamed worsening security and religious extremism, and cited death threats against Christians and the forcible seizure of their property by armed gangs purporting to be members of powerful militias.

He also reiterated criticism of "Western countries who encourage migration of Christians."

The church leader spoke after visiting Christian communities nationwide.

Though not explicitly targeted as they were in the aftermath of the 2003 US-led invasion, Christians are among those suffering from the recent upsurge in violence across Iraq.

In addition to the bloodshed, they are vulnerable to pressure from armed groups, with local NGOs reporting several homes belonging to Christians having been forcibly seized.

Though others have suffered similar fates, Christian have been disproportionately targeted for reasons to do with tribal politics and because of the high number who have fled.

Because Christians do not retain tribal affiliations in the way Muslim Arabs do, they have little recourse for resolving disputes outside the Iraqi legal system, which is often criticised for corruption and subject to manipulation.