BAGHDAD (AFP) -- The Iraqi army has been put on alert because of threats against the country's Christian minority over the coming Christmas holidays, the defence ministry spokesman said on Friday.

"We have put our forces on alert in Baghdad, the provinces of Kirkuk and Nineveh, including its capital Mosul, where our Christian brothers will be celebrating their holidays, because we have intelligence indicating they could be attacked during this period," General Mohammed al-Askari told AFP.

Askari said the latest attacks on churches "carry the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda, and we are going to take serious measures to assure the security of churches and avoid terrorist attacks."

Hundreds of Christians have been murdered since the US-led invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003, and tens of thousands have fled the country. The community has dwindled from 800,000 to around 550,000 now.

On Thursday, Christian Zeid Majid Yussef, 30, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in the main northern city of Mosul.

Two days earlier, bombers struck two churches in Mosul, killing a baby and wounding at least 40 people, among them schoolchildren, police and medics said.

One bomb struck the Syrian Catholic Church of the Annunciation. The second, a car bomb, struck the Syrian Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary and an adjacent Christian school in the city centre, police said.

And on November 26, bombs hit a church and a convent in Mosul, causing severe damage but no casualties.

Last year, thousands of Christians fled Mosul in the face of violence that claimed the lives of 40 members of the community.