The Chaldean priest is the second clergyman to be taken in a month. According to Mgr Sako, this is an attempt to throw out the Christians.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) – An armed group abducted a Catholic Chaldean priest last Tuesday and nothing is currently known of his whereabouts, this according to local Catholics. They report that right after the mass for the Assumption in St James Church (Doura neighbourhood)), Fr Hanna Saad Sirop was stopped by a group of armed men. A person who was with the priest was let go but he was spirited away. The car used in the kidnapping was found days later but there were no traces of the criminals.

Fr Saad Sirop, 34, runs the Theology Department at Babel College, the only university-level Christian institution in Iraq.

Three days into the clergyman's disappearance, there were no news about him or his kidnappers, said Jacques Issak, rector of Babel College.

The bishops of all of Baghdad's Christian Churches sent a letter to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki asking they get involved. The Churches also urged various political parties do something.

Another Baghdad priest, Fr Raad Kashan, was abducted on July 17. He managed to get away by promising money to his captors. However, he was ill-treated and fled the country.

Mgr Basil Georges Casmoussa, Syro-Catholic bishop of Mosul, was kidnapped in January 2005. He, too, was released the next day.

Kidnappings are everyday occurrences in Iraq. Most are committed for ransom money, but many victims are killed after a few days.

For some Christians, targeting Christian clergymen is a way to frighten them into leaving the country. "I think that there are two reasons these kidnappings are taking place. [. . .] The first reason is money. But the second reason is that they want to push Christians out of Iraq," Mgr Louis Sako, Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk, told the Compass news agency.

According to some estimates, before the 2003, Iraq had more than a million Christians. Today they are half that many. Some have gone abroad; many others have fled to the north, in the Kurdish region, where they get more respect and there is greater security.

• iraq
• christians
• abduction
• kidnapping
• babel
• college
• hanna
• saad
• sirop
• raad
• kashan