Christian priest killed by gunmen

The Assyrian Orthodox priest and his wife had fled another neighborhood because of violence.

BAGHDAD (AP) — An Assyrian Orthodox priest was shot to death Saturday 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.”

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

The gunmen used silencers, and his wife who was with him did not realize what happened until she saw her husband collapse, the priest said.

Neighbors and members of the congregation wept as they flocked to Adel’s house to pay their condolences to his wife. The funeral was scheduled for today.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, a bomb exploded on a minibus carrying morning commuters on the busy Palestine Street, killing at least four passengers and wounding 15, police said.

The Iraqi government, meanwhile, eased security measures in two Baghdad neighborhoods that are strongholds of Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia — Sadr City and Shula — amid complaints of food shortages nearly a week after the radical Shiite cleric issued a cease-fire order.