Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has condemned an apparent suicide bombing that killed 21 people at a church in Alexandria, Egypt, a government statement released on Sunday said.

Al-Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate has said it attacked a Baghdad church because two women who allegedly converted to Islam were being held hostage by Egypt's Coptic Church, and threatened Christians in the region, including in Egypt.

"This awful crime targeted both Christians and Muslims, both innocent," the statement quoted a message from Maliki to Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif as saying.

"It demonstrates again the criminal nature of the terrorists.

"We in Iraq, government and people, find ourselves on the side of our brothers in Egypt in standing against this heinous attack, and we are fully confident in the ability of the people of Egypt and their wise leaders to overcome this ordeal," it said.

An Egyptian health ministry official said 21 people were killed and 79 wounded in the bombing early on Saturday that targeted worshippers emerging from New Year's Eve mass. The Egyptian interior ministry said eight of those wounded were Muslims.

Iraq has itself seen a spate of deadly attacks against Christians.

On October 31, militants attacked the Our Lady of Salvation cathedral in central Baghdad, leaving 44 worshippers, two priests and seven security force personnel dead.

The SITE monitoring group reported the day after the hostage-taking that Al-Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, said it had seized Christians in Iraq to force the release of the two alleged converts in Egypt.

ISI also threatened further attacks, SITE said.

"Not only in Iraq, but in Egypt and the Levant and the rest of the countries in the area, there are hundreds of thousands of your people amongst us and hundreds of churches, and all of them will be targets for us if you do not comply," SITE quoted an audiotape from ISI as saying.

Ten days after the church massacre, a string of bomb and mortar attacks targeting the homes of Christians in Baghdad killed six people and wounded 33.

And on Thursday, at least two Christians were killed and 16 others wounded in a wave of bomb attacks on Christian targets in Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who was approved by parliament for a second term along with a national unity cabinet on December 21 after more than nine months of political deadlock, has cited security as one of his priorities.

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