Kidnappers murder Iraqi church elder in Mosul

MOSUL, Iraq — Grieving Christians in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul completed three days of mourning for a murdered Presbyterian church elder Dec. 3, 2006, only hours before another Iraqi clergyman was grabbed off the streets of Baghdad Dec. 4. Identified only as 69-year-old Elder Munthir, the murdered Christian had been kidnapped after leading worship services at the National Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Mosul Nov. 26. His body was found four days later. According to one Mosul source who described the kidnappers’ conversations, "They said, ‘We will cut his throat. We will take revenge for the Pope’s words … We will kill all the Christians, and we will start with him.’"

In Baghdad, the Chaldean Catholic patriarchate confirmed that another clergyman — Father Samy Al Raiys — was kidnapped the morning of Dec. 4 from his car as he left his church in the Al-Sinaa district of the capital, near the University of Technology.