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Iraqi Christians gather for funeral of archbishop

Christians from across Iraq were gathering yesterday for the funeral of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop whose body was found in northern Iraq two weeks after he was kidnapped, clerics said.

The service was to be held mid-afternoon in the Christian village of Kremlish, about 35km east of Mosul, said Azem Elias, a spokesman for the Chaldean church.

Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho would be buried in the Mar Adaa church in the small village, Elias said, adding that delegations of Christians had arrived from Baghdad, the autonomous Kurdish region and other parts of Iraq.

Rahho's body was found in a shallow grave in Mosul on Thursday after his kidnappers alerted church authorities that he had died and they had buried him.

Rahho, 65, was kidnapped during a shootout in which three of his companions were killed, as he returned home home after mass in Mosul on Feb. 29.

While it is not yet known whether Rahho, the archbishop of Mosul, died from natural causes or was killed, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and others are treating the death as murder.

The US embassy in Baghdad and the US military in a joint statement yesterday blamed al-Qaeda for the archbishop's death.

"His demise at the hands of al-Qaeda in Iraq is one more savage attempt by a barbaric enemy to sow strife and discord in Iraq," the statement said.

The Web site of Ishtar television, sponsored by Christian churches, said the kidnappers moved three times during the two weeks of captivity because the area where he was held was raided twice.

The kidnappers had demanded that Christians contribute to the jihad, or the holy war, that a number of Arab detainees be released from custody and that they be paid US$3 million for Rahho's release.

Major General Khalid Abdul Sattar, spokesman for the Nineveh Province security plan, told state television the archbishop may have been dead for some days.

"The medical report shows the body had started decaying, indicating he has been dead for more than 72 hours," Sattar said.

Raban al-Qas, the head of the Chaldean church in the northern Kurdish region, said there was no trace of any bullet wounds in Rahho's body.
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