BAGHDAD, March 13: A Chaldean Catholic archbishop kidnapped last month in northern Iraq was found dead on Thursday, an Iraqi official said.

“Yes, we found his body,” interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf told AFP.

He was reacting to a report from Rome that the body of Paulos Faraj Rahho, the archbishop of Mosul who was kidnapped on Feb 29, was found near the northern city. It was unclear if he died of natural causes or was killed.

The kidnappers had telephoned to inform the Baghdad prelate that Rahho, who was in poor health, had died and that they had buried him, the Italian Roman Catholic Church’s SIR news agency reported, quoting the auxiliary archbishop of Baghdad, Shlemon Warduni.

“The kidnappers had told us already (Wednesday) that Monsignor Rahho was very ill, and yesterday afternoon they told us that he died. This morning, they telephoned us to say they had buried him,” Warduni said, adding that the kidnappers indicated the location of the body.

“We still don’t know whether he died from his poor health or was killed,” Warduni said. “The kidnappers only told us that he was dead.”

Iraqi television channel Ishtar, sponsored by Christian churches, said the archbishop’s had been exhumed and transported to a morgue where the cause of death would be determined.

Mr Rahho was kidnapped in Mosul after a shootout in which three of his companions were killed.Pope Benedict XVI reacted with “deep sadness” to the news of Rahho’s death, a Vatican spokesman said.

“The most absurd and unjustified violence continues to afflict the Iraqi people and in particular the small Christian community whom the pope ... holds in his prayers ... in this time of deep sadness,” Father Federico Lombardi said.—AFP