Baghdad, Iraq, Mar 4, 2008 / 14:22 pm
The Iraqi prime minister has made the release of a kidnapped Chaldean Catholic archbishop a top priority, saying the assault on Christians “represents an assault on all Iraqis,” Reuters reports.
Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, was abducted on Friday after he left a church in Mosul, a northern Iraq city. Gunmen attacked the archbishop’s car, killing his driver and two guards. Sources familiar with the kidnappers’ demands informed CNA yesterday that a $1.8 million ransom if being demanded for the archbishop’s freedom.
"The prime minister has issued an order to the interior minister and all security officials of Nineveh province to follow the case and work very hard to release (Rahho) as soon as possible," the office of Prime Minster Nuri al-Maliki said in a statement.
The prime minister’s office said Maliki had written to Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, the Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad, expressing “deep sadness and grief” over the abduction and saying he was carefully monitoring the situation.