Middle East News
Body of kidnapped Christian found northern Iraq
May 16, 2011, 14:01 GMT
Kirkuk, Iraq - The body of an Iraqi Christian, kidnapped three days ago, was found in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, police sources said Monday.
Police discovered the body of Ashur Yacoub with signs of torture.
Yacoub, a Christian in his 30s, was kidnapped by gunmen days ago, who demanded his relatives to pay 100,000 dollars as ransom to release him.
'But when they failed to pay the ransom, he was killed by his abductors,' a security source told the Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Iraqi Christians have been targeted in a series of attacks over the past few months, since a hostage-taking situation by al-Qaeda affiliated group in a Baghdad church left some 60 people dead, most of them Christian worshippers, along with a few security personnel.
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