Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, kidnapped in Iraq last month, was found dead on March 13, his body half-buried in an empty lot in the northern city of Mosul. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed Rahho's death on al-Qaeda and said his Shi'ite-led government was committed to protecting Christians, who make up about 3% of Iraq's population. "The perpetrators of this horrible crime will not run from the hand of justice," Maliki said. Pope Benedict, who had made several appeals for Rahho's freedom, called his death "an act of inhuman violence that offends the dignity of the human being" in a letter to Iraqi church leaders. (Reuters, March 13)

From the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), March 8:

On the 8th of March This Year...
"No to Women Killing... No to the Gangs Who Promote Sexual Cleansing...
Yes to an Iraq that is Free of Women Haters"
The 8th of March is the International Women's Day, on which the voices are lauding and protests against sexual discrimination are widening every day even in the most developed countries. In Iraq however, the discrimination against women has reached to a degree of sexual cleansing carried out by sectarian militias linked to the regime of mullahs in Iran and groups of Al Qaeda. These groups have committed the most heinous crimes against humanity, and women in particular to the extent of sexual genocide in the cities of Basra, Baghdad, Mosul and Diyala.

Iraq's President Jalal Talabani said March 8 he seeks a "strategic" partnership with Turkey as he wrapped up a visit to Ankara aimed at easing tension sparked by the Turkish military's eight-day incursion into Iraq last month. Speaking to members of a Turkish-Iraqi joint business group, Talabani also called on Turkish interests to invest in Iraq's oil sector. "We want to forge strategic relations in all fields including oil, the economy, trade, culture and politics," Talabani said. Addressing Turkish fears, Talabani stressed that Kurdish rebels would not be tolerated inside Iraq's borders, and said Iraq was continuing to put pressure on the PKK to lay down arms. (AP, March 8)

A double bombing in a crowded Baghdad shopping district killed at least 53 people and wounded 130 March 6. The blasts took place in the primarily Shi'ite, middle-class Baghdad neighborhood of Karradah. The tactic was to draw in the people with the first blast—especially security and medical workers—before a second bomb detonates. (AP, March 8) Iraqi security forces uncovered a mass grave containing about 100 bodies in the Diyala province March 8. (Xinhua, March 8)

At least 23 were killed and dozens were wounded March 3 when two car bombs, including one driven by a suicide attacker, blew up in Baghdad. In the suicide attack, a man drove a minibus into the headquarters of the Interior Ministry's 4th Brigade, a special quick reaction force based in Baghdad's eastern Zayouna neighborhood. The blast killed at least two police officers and wounded six others. One day earlier, the US military said its soldiers discovered 14 bodies in a mass grave south of the city of Samarra. The military said all the victims had their hands tied behind their backs and had been shot in the head — execution style. "Coalition and Iraqi forces believe al-Qaida in Iraq is responsible for these murders. The victims are believed to have been members of Iraqi security forces or Sons of Iraq," a military announcement said. Sons of Iraq is US-funded Sunni militia now fighting al-Qaeda. (AP, March 3)

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received what the United Arab Emirates' Gulf News called a "hero's welcome" in Baghdad, where Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the Islamic Republic's recent approach towards his country has been "extremely helpful." He described his discussions with Ahmadinejad as "friendly, positive and full of trust," adding that his landmark visit to Baghdad sends a positive message to neighboring countries to reinforce their ties with Iraq. He also pledged to crack down on Iranian guerillas operating from Iraqi territory, including the Mujahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO) and the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK). Slogans on the walls of houses and public markets in Baghdad's Sadr City welcomed Ahmadinejad and hailed him as a hero. Signs in Sunni neighborhoods condemned him as a villain and architect of Iraq's sectarian violence. (Gulf News, UAE, March 3; Press TV, Iran, March 2)

At last two are dead and 12 wounded in an ambush 130 kilometers south of Kirkuk on a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims returning from the Arbaeen celebrations in Karbala March 1. "Two people, including a woman, were killed and 12 others injured in an attack by unidentified gunmen on a bus carrying civilians returning from the Arbaeen pilgrimage near Soliman Pak area, south of Kirkuk, on Saturday morning," a medic at Kirkuk's hospital told Aswat al-Iraq/Voices of Iraq news agency. (VOI, March 1)

Unknown gunmen kidnapped Chaldean Archbishop Faraj Rahho in Mosul after killing two of his bodyguards and his driver soon after he left Mass in the northern Iraqi city's Safina Church. Pope Benedict XVI regretted the kidnapping and said he is praying for Iraq to reach the path of reconciliation and peace. For the past year, Mosul's Christians have been targeted in a wave of attacks that have damaged several churches and seriously wounded four parishioners—as well as leaving a priest dead in June 2007. In October, two priests from Mosul were abducted and held for nine days. A Syriac archbishop was kidnapped in Mosul in January 2005. (Al-Sumariia TV, March 1)