Church officials said Hani Abdel Ahad was seized June 6 with the five in Suleikh, a Sunni neighborhood in northern Baghdad. Four boys were released the next day, but one of them apparently remained in custody with the priest, Catholic news agency AsiaNews reported.
A ransom was allegedly made to the patriarch of the Chaldean church, Emmanuel Delly, but church officials have in past kidnappings often refused to confirm more details during
negotiations, citing security concerns.
The kidnapping followed the killings of Chaldean priest Ragheed Aziz Kani and his three assistants in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul, murders condemned by Pope Benedict XVI as "senseless".
ISLAM CONVERSION
Before opening fire on Kani and his three deacons, the killers allegedly demanded their conversion to Islam.
News of the latest kidnappings also came amid fresh reports that over one thousand Christian families have fled Baghdad, after being threatened by Islamic extremists.
In a statement released by AsiaNews ‘Portes ouvertes’, an international Christian organization helping persecuted churches, said "Islamic militias" are threatening Christians when they "refuse to convert to Islam," decline to pay taxes to Muslim groups, or refuse to "give a daughter for marriage to a Muslim."
The militants’ action constitutes “a virtual campaign that seeks to empty Dora," a traditionally Christian area and "its adjacent neighborhoods of its Christian population," the group said.
Many Christian refugees are reportedly on their way to neighboring Jordan and Syria.
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