Christians all over Iraq gathered today for the funeral service of the Chaldean Catholic archbishop whose body was found Thursday in the southeastern area of Mosul, after he had been abducted two weeks ago in Mosul.

Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Mosul, was abducted February 29, as he was returning home from the afternoon Mass. His driver and two of his guards were killed by gunmen.

Rahho’s body was found by police in the city’s Intisar neighborhood. The authorities could not say whether he died of natural causes or due to bad health or injuries. Church officials told AsiaNews that the archbishop had had a heart attack two years ago. According to the New York Times, the archbishop was suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes. His death could have been caused by lack of his medication.

An autopsy found that he had been dead for five days and there were no signs of violence on his body.

But Nineveh’s provincial police chief, Gen. Wathiq Hamdani, said that police found archbishop’s body on the street and that he had been shot.

“He was wounded when they killed his security and as a result he died,” Hamdani said.

Nineveh Deputy Gov. Khasro Goran said that Rahho’s abductors have been pretending he is still alive hoping to receive a ransom. The kidnappers demanded three million dollars for Rahho’s release. Moreover, they had demanded Christians take part in the jihad, and also the release of Arab fellows held in Kurdish prisons.

Both Hamdani and Goran blamed the archbishop’s death on Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Pope Benedict called Rahho's death “an act of inhuman violence that offends the dignity of the human being.”

“I deplore the despicable act of violence committed against the Archbishop of Mosul,” U.S. President George W. Bush said in a statement.

Assyrian Christian politician Romeo Hakkari, a member of the Kurdistan regional parliament, warned that Iraq's Christians were under siege.

“There is a great threat to Christians as a religion and ethnicity. I don't recall a day in Iraq's history where Christians were being killed like today,” Hakkari said. “This is conspiracy by the Islamic radical group of Al Qaeda to annihilate Christians.”

In the last few years, Christians in Mosul have witnessd a series of attacks. The archbishop’s kidnapping followed a series of attacks in January on Christian churches. Last June, a priest and three companions were shot and killed in the archbishop’s church. In January 2005, Archbishop George Yasilious, of another church in Mosul, was kidnapped and later released. In October 2006, an Orthodox priest, Boulos Iskander, was beheaded after he was kidnapped and the attempts to ransom him failed.