Threat to Christian minority is seen in a Mosul shooting

BAGHDAD - The Christian owner of a car repair shop was killed execution-style in Mosul, police said yesterday, raising worry on the possibility of new attacks against the religious minority in the northern Iraq city.

The body of the 36-year-old man, who was shot in the head, was found Thursday, according to police and hospital officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

Another Christian man, an engineer in the city's water department, was kidnapped in early January but was released four days later after his family paid a $50,000 ransom.

No one claimed responsibility for the killing or the kidnapping, but they followed a pattern of violence and intimidation that sent thousands of Christians fleeing from their homes in Mosul in the fall.

Bassem Balu, an official with the Democratic Assyrian Movement, sought to maintain calm, saying the motive for the latest killing was not known. The movement is the largest Christian party.

"For the time being, I do not think that this will slow the return of the Christians to Mosul," he said.

Some Mosul residents have filtered back since the fall, but others remain with relatives in the safer countryside or have sought refuge in neighboring Syria despite government pledges of financial support and protection.

Reflecting the continued fear, Christian candidates running in the Jan. 31 provincial elections have not been campaigning in Mosul, instead limiting their activities to Christian areas outside the city.

Saad Tanyous, a candidate for the provincial council, said Christians were not even putting posters on walls in Mosul.

Christians have frequently been targeted amid the fierce sectarian fighting that broke out after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, although the attacks have ebbed with a sharp drop in overall violence.

Churches, priests and businesses of the generally prosperous, well-educated community have been attacked by militants who denounce Christians as pro-American "crusaders."

In an exodus that began after the 1991 war and escalated after the invasion in 2003, Iraq has lost more than half its Christian population of about one million.

The body of Paulos Rahho, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul, was found in March after gunmen abducted him following a Mass.

Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, remains one of the most dangerous cities in Iraq despite security gains.

Gunmen killed two Iraqi soldiers on foot patrol in the city yesterday, police said.