Christian priest shot dead in Baghdad

Family members of the Rev. Youssef Adel, 47, mourned the slain Assyrian Orthodox priest at his home in central Baghdad. (Hadi Mizban/associated press)

BAGHDAD - An Assyrian Orthodox priest was shot to death yesterday by gunmen using silencers as the Christian cleric and his wife returned home after a trip to the market in Baghdad.

The latest attack against Iraq's Christian minority drew a new plea from Pope Benedict XVI for Iraqis to "find the way of peace to build a just and tolerant society."

The Rev. Youssef Adel, 47, had tried to escape the sectarian violence, fleeing the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Dora at a time when insurgents were burning down churches and uprooting Christians from their homes on threat of death.

He moved with his wife, Lamia, to a relatively safe area in the mostly Shi'ite central district of Karradah and presided over services at the nearby St. Peter and Paul church, according to an assistant who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

But in a vivid example of the dangers that continue to face Iraqis despite a sharp drop in violence, Adel was shot to death near the gate of his house, another priest in the same church said, also declining to be identified for fear of becoming a target.

Adel's wife did not realize what happened until she saw her husband collapse, the priest said.

In a separate development yesterday, a civilian contractor working for the US military in Iraq was charged with aggravated assault under military law, the first such prosecution since the Vietnam War, the US command said yesterday.

Alaa Mohammad Ali, who holds dual Iraqi-Canadian citizenship, is the first person facing criminal charges since Congress in 2006 gave the military authority to prosecute crimes committed by civilians working for the armed forces, a US statement said

Ali, a US Army translator, is accused of stabbing another contractor during a fight on Feb. 23 at a base near Hit, a town 85 miles west of Baghdad in Anbar Province. A hearing has been set for Thursday.

In Karradah yesterday, neighbors and members of Adel's congregation wept as they flocked to his house to pay their condolences to his wife. The funeral was scheduled for today.

"Everybody is shocked," said Matti Zaki, a fellow priest who was among the mourners. "The sadness is everywhere in the house. I cannot find the suitable words to express the ordeal the family is going through."

Christians have frequently been caught up in the violence or been targeted in this predominantly Muslim country.

The body of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, one of Iraq's most senior Chaldean Catholic clerics, was found on March 13, about two weeks after he was seized by gunmen in the volatile northwestern city of Mosul.

Adel's assistant said the priest, who was married but had no children, directed a religiously mixed school for Muslims and Christians at the church.

Adel, an engineer who became a priest about six years ago, was described as a compassionate man who preached about love and peace, and was heavily involved in helping orphans and widows and other charities.

"We never expected today's ugly killing because the assassinated priest has no enemies at all," Archbishop Severius Hawa said.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, a bomb exploded on a minibus carrying morning commuters on the busy Palestine Street, killing at least four passengers, police said.

The Iraqi government, meanwhile, eased security measures in two Baghdad neighborhoods that are strongholds of Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia - Sadr City and Shula - amid complaints of food shortages nearly a week after the Shi'ite cleric ordered a cease-fire.

While Sadr's order put an end to large-scale fighting that broke out over a government crackdown in the southern city of Basra, clashes have continued.

Sporadic gun battles erupted between militia fighters and Iraqi soldiers backed by US helicopters in Sadr City yesterday evening, and one of the gunmen was killed, according to local police.

The US military, meanwhile, said a helicopter had launched a precision air strike on Friday, killing a gunman, in support of Iraqi ground forces under fire in the militia stronghold of Hayaniyah.

Police said five people were killed in the strike, including civilians and an unspecified number of militants who had fired a mortar at Iraqi security forces.

In all, at least 28 people were killed or found dead across Iraq yesterday, including a senior police officer who was gunned down in eastern Baghdad and seven bodies with bullet wounds were found on the streets of the capital.