Iraqi patriarch says church officials work for release of hostages

Published: 2004-04-28

ROME (CNS) -- The Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad, Iraq, said he and the apostolic nunciature have been working behind the scenes for the release of three Italian hostages in Iraq. "We are doing everything possible. We're at the point where we feel optimistic there will be a positive outcome to this affair," Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly said April 28 in an interview with the Italian Catholic news agency SIR. Four Italians who had been working in Iraq as security guards for a U.S.-based company were abducted April 12 in Baghdad by a group calling itself the Green Battalion. One of the hostages was killed by his captors two days later; he was the first foreign hostage known to be killed in Iraq. The U.S.-led coalition estimates some 50 foreigners have been captured and taken hostage by various groups since mid-March. Many have since been released.

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