Catholic archbishop abducted in Iraq

Deadly unrest dogs poll run-up, security forces take brunt of flurry of attacks.

By Mujahid Mohammed – MOSUL, Iraq

Gunmen kidnapped a Catholic archbishop in Iraq’s main northern city of Mosul Monday in what the Vatican condemned as a “terrorist act” as persistent violence dogged the run-up to landmark January 30 elections.

Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said his US-backed interim government was “prepared for the worst” as insurgent attacks killed dozens of people in the space of 48 hours.

Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, leader of Mosul’s Syrian Catholic community, was seized by gunmen as he was about to get into his car, local priest Father Faraj said.

The kidnappers then tossed him into the trunk of their vehicle before speeding away, said the priest, who follows the rival Chaldean rite.

The Chaldean patriarch in Baghdad, Emmanuel Delly, said Casmoussa “was abducted outside his home as he was returning from a pastoral visit in the diocese of Mosul.”

“He was abducted and taken off in a car. We don’t know who took him, nor the reason why,” Delly told the missionary news agency Misna by telephone.

“We gave the news to the Vatican and now we are doing everything possible to trace him and we hope we can save him.”

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls said the Holy See “condemns in the firmest manner this terrorist act and demands that Monsignor Casmoussa be rapidly returned safe and well to his ministry.”

The motive of the abduction was not immediately clear but it came amid mounting sectarian violence in the run-up to this month’s elections.

The home of the Chaldean patriarch was attacked late last year, prompting condemnation from Pope John Paul II.

In Baghdad, a spokesman for one of the main Christian political parties suggested the abduction might be an attempt to intimidate the community into staying at home on polling day.

“It could be an attack on Christians who are willing to participate in the elections,” said Assyrian Democratic Movement spokesman William Warda.

Iraq’s fledgling security forces, which are to take the lead role on polling day, took the brunt of a flurry of attacks around Iraq on Monday.

North of Baghdad, some 20 rebels ambushed an army checkpoint near Baquba, sprayed gunfire and lobbed rocket-propelled grenades, killing seven soldiers and a security guard, said army officers.

The killings came after the Iraqi army arrested around 60 people in sweeps in the town of Bohrouz, south of Baquba, where the insurgency has popular support, said local resident Akeel Mateb.

The Al-Qaeda-linked group of Iraq’s most wanted man Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on the Internet.

In another attack, seven policemen were killed and 15 wounded in a suicide bombing outside a police station in Baiji, home to Iraq’s largest oil refinery, a senior police officer said.

In the village of Al-Dawr, just outside Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, one officer was killed and another wounded, police said.

In Al-Shurqat, south of Mosul, one policeman was killed and two wounded in another attack on a police station, while the body of a second officer was found riddled with bullets on a roadside.

Amid the violence, the deputy prime minister acknowledged that polling day was likely to be mired in violence but argued an “imperfect” poll was better than none at all.

“I hope elections will go smoothly but we are prepared for the worst,” said Saleh.

As he spoke, the first of an estimated one million Iraqi expatriates began registering to vote in the country’s elections.

More than 1,000 Iraqis in Australia were the first to register, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which is organising the elections for Iraqis living abroad.

“We estimate up to a million people in the 14 host countries could register,” said Peter Erben of the Geneva-based IOM.

The top US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, gave a gloomy prognosis, saying that election day violence was unavoidable despite the coalition’s best efforts.

With much riding on their performance, Iraqi security forces went on the offensive, killing 35 rebels and arresting 64 in the space of 48 hours in the formerly rebel-held city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, the government said.

A British newspaper report said almost 800 British soldiers have been injured in Iraq since the start of the US-led war in March 2003.

The Ministry of Defence had previously refused to give a tally of British wounded, but had now revealed that 790 British personnel had returned from Iraq after being injured in military incidents or accidents, The Times reported.