R.I. pastor killed, Conn. pastor among those injured in Iraq

John Kelley, 48, was traveling near Baghdad with three others Saturday when a white sedan pulled up alongside them and opened fire, said Roland Vukic, of Charlestown, a member of Curtis Corner Church, who is serving as the family's spokesman.

Vukic said he was told of the incident in a phone call Saturday from another pastor who was in Iraq.

The Rev. David Davis, who serves as pastor of the Grace Bible Baptist Church in Vernon, Conn., was injured in the shooting.

"I talked to him Saturday and briefly this morning," Davis' wife, Dorothy said Monday. "I don't really know all the particulars, just that it was minor."

She said her husband was not hospitalized and will be returning to Connecticut soon.

Kate Pettit, 30, of Frankin, Mass., learned of the ambush in a phone call from her father, Kirk DiVietro, who was in the back seat of the vehicle when it was sprayed with gunfire.

"He said they must've emptied two rounds into the car. Their driver then just pushed the gas and tried to get out of there," Pettit said.

She said DiVietro, 51, suffered minor injuries, including cuts on his hands and head. Two other pastors -- one from New York and another from Connecticut -- were also injured, she said.

U.S. paratroopers learned of Saturday's attack while conducting a patrol in the town of Mahmudiyah, about 15 miles south of Baghdad, and were told the Americans were being treated at a hospital there.

A statement on Sunday from the U.S. military said the Americans were part of a "religious group" but did not identify it.

The State Department has not confirmed Kelley's death.

Vukic described Curtis Corner as an independent, fundamentalist Baptist church whose members regularly "preach the Gospel" in their communities and seek to establish new churches around the world. He said Kelley and about 10 other pastors from the New England area left on Feb. 6 to help start a church in Baghdad.

The trip was to last two weeks, Pettit said. She said her father planned to return to Franklin, where he is the head pastor at Grace Baptist Church, on Friday.

"We're really grieved. Pastor Kelley was a really good guy. He was what every pastor should be -- a great family man, very genuine, worked hard for his parish," said Sam Stricklin, a pastor at First Baptist Church in Warwick.

Kelley leaves a wife and four children. A message left at their home was not immediately returned. Kelley was the pastor at Curtis Corner, a parish of about 120 people, for 18 years.