“The motive is not clear,” say Canadian officials, although they say they are investigating reports of persecution of Christians in Iraq. I expect they will officially admit it is happening around the time snowballs freeze in hell. From CP:
OTTAWA — The sister of a Canadian killed in Baghdad this week said he was murdered because he was a Christian. She said the Canadian government has offered no help in returning Munir Toma’s body to his adopted country for burial.
“He was killed because he was Christian,” she said in a phone interview from Detroit yesterday.
She said relatives in Baghdad told her a grisly tale of how Toma and Andrew Shmakov died.
“They’re killing a lot of Christians,” she said.
The two men were leaving a construction company they had established to take advantage of Iraqi reconstruction opportunities when they were attacked by gunmen, Shary Toma recounted.
“He got in his car and after they got in, before he put the car into drive, they jumped on the top of the car and they shot,” she said. “He managed to put the car into drive after he’s been shot from the roof and four cars followed him. The four cars, they tried to ambush him and after they ambushed him, they got out of their car and they just shot them.”
Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Marie-Christine Lilkoff said the department is communicating with Toma’s family about repatriating his body. She said because Canada has no embassy in Iraq, it is forced to rely on the co-operation of its allies and local authorities.
‘MOTIVE UNCLEAR’
The closest Canadian Embassy is in the Jordanian capital Amman.
Lilkoff said Shary Toma’s statement that her brother was killed because he was a Christian cannot be confirmed.
“The motive is not clear,” she said.
However, she said, Canada has expressed concern about reports Christians are being targeted in Iraq.
Shary Toma said her brother’s wife and six-year-old daughter are in danger from the same killers.