Slain Iraqi Catholic Archbishop Buried in Mosul
By VOA News
14 March 2008
A prominent Iraqi Christian cleric, who died after being taken hostage in Iraq last month, has been buried near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
During Friday's funeral mass, the patriarch of Iraq's Chaldean Catholic church Emmanuel III Delly remembered Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho as a man dedicated to his faith.
Rahho's body was discovered in a shallow grave near the city Thursday, after kidnappers telephoned church officials to say where his body could be found.
He was abducted on February 29. Authorities say they are not sure if the 65-year-old Rahho was killed or if he died from natural causes.
Pope Benedict called Rahho's death an "inhuman act of violence." The U.S. embassy in Baghdad says the incident is one more "savage attempt by a barbaric enemy to sow strife and discord in Iraq."
In other news, Iraqi police say a car bomb attack against an Iraqi army checkpoint in Mosul has killed three Iraqi soldiers. According to police, the bomb went off in an industrial area. Ten other people were wounded in the attack.
Meanwhile, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq says Iraqi political leaders have failed to make any real progress towards political reconciliation, despite a dramatic drop in violence.
In an interview published Friday in the Washington Post, Army General David Petraeus says the decline is due to former Sunni insurgents joining neighborhood patrols, and a cease-fire called by radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
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