BAGHDAD — The body of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop who was abducted by gunmen last month was discovered Thursday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, and a car bomb killed 18 people in Baghdad.
Mosul Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho's body was found by police in the city's Intisar neighborhood. Gunmen grabbed him Feb. 29 after he had finished celebrating the Stations of the Cross, killing three of his bodyguards.
There were conflicting accounts Thursday night of the cause of his death, whether from ill health or injuries suffered when he was seized.
Church sources told AsiaNews, a Catholic news service, that the death of the 67-year-old Rahho, who had suffered a heart attack a couple of years ago and was in poor health, probably was caused by the lack of his medication. They told the agency, which specializes in the Middle East, that his body showed no signs of violence and that an autopsy revealed he had been dead for at least five days.
However, Nineveh's provincial police chief, Gen. Wathiq Hamdani, said that police found Rahho's body in the street and that he had been shot.
"He was wounded when they killed his security and as a result he died," Hamdani said.
Nineveh Deputy Gov. Khasro Goran said Rahho's killers probably had pretended for days that he was alive in hope of getting a ransom.
"It's not the first time Christian bishops have been targeted by these organizations," he said.
Both Hamdani and Goran blamed the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq for the archbishop's death.
The kidnappers had demanded millions of dollars, weapons and the release of Arab inmates in Kurdish prisons, the news service reported.
Rahho, in a fall interview with the news agency, said he thought Christians in Mosul encountered great risks because of their faith, which groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq consider inferior to Islam.
"Everyone is suffering from this war irrespective of religious affiliation, but in Mosul Christians face starker choices," Rahho said.
In June, a priest and three deacons were fatally shot outside their church in Mosul. Two priests were kidnapped and released in October in the northern city. Several of the city's churches and affiliated buildings were targeted in January bombings.
Before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraqi Christians were estimated to number about 800,000, but many have fled the country. Their churches have been attacked and members assassinated or expelled from their homes by Islamic extremists.
