The Christians were abducted Wednesday, June 20, while on their way home from exams at
the university in the northern city of Mosul. Catholic media spoke earlier of seven students and one professor being kidnapped.
Compass Direct News, a Christian news agency, said television network Ashtar TV reported that Christians were released in Mosul around noon local time. It quoted a priest as saying that families raised $250,000 in support of the hostages.
"First of all, they were kidnapped for money, and secondly, they were kidnapped because they are Christians," the priest said, apparently on condition of anonymity for security reasons. "The minorities are vulnerable." However two other Christians believed to be kidnapped in a seperate incident in the area were apparently not yet released Friday, June 22, by militants, who reportedly demanded a ransom.
CHRISTIANS KILLED
There was no immediate independent confirmation of Friday’s release. Relatives an church officials had anxiously awaited the release of the eigh Christians, amid concerns that militants could mistreat or even kill the believers.
On Tuesday, June 19, two unidentified Christians were killed in the Nour district of Mosul, the same area where on June 3 Chaldean Catholic priest Ragheed Ganni and three assistants were murdered by suspected Muslim militants.
Christians currently make up just three percent of Iraq’s 26 million people, according to estimates, but an increasing number of believers are fleeing to neighboring Jordan and Syria. (With BosNewsLife Monitoring and reports from Iraq).
