U.N. calls for Iraqi action after archbishop seized

By Michael Holden

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.N. envoy to Iraq called on the government to do more to protect minorities after gunmen abducted a Chaldean Catholic archbishop in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, was seized on Friday after gunmen attacked his car in the eastern al-Nour district of the city. The kidnappers had fired on his car, killing his driver and two guards.

"It is appalling that these attacks on communities that have lived peacefully together in north Iraq for centuries are continuing," said U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura in a statement.

He called on the government to "redouble its efforts" to protect religious minorities "recalling that the archbishop of Mosul is the latest in a long line of members of the Christian and other communities in Iraq to be killed or abducted".

Chaldeans belong to a branch of the Roman Catholic Church that practices an ancient Eastern rite. Most of its members are in Iraq and Syria, and they form the biggest Christian community in Iraq.

Christians make up about 3 percent of Iraq's 27 million, mostly Muslim, population and have come under attack on a number of occasions since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Last June, gunmen killed Catholic priest Ragheed Aziz Kani and three assistants in eastern Mosul after stopping their car near a church in the ethnically and religiously mixed city.

A former archbishop of Mosul, Basile Georges Casmoussa, was kidnapped at gunpoint in 2005 but was freed a day later.