A senior British cleric has left Iraq suddenly after receiving death threats for attempting to secure the release of five British hostages seized in May.
Canon Andrew White, the Anglican vicar of Baghdad, was a friend of the men, who were kidnapped in May. His office at the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East said that he had “put a lot of time, effort, energy – everything he has – into their release”, before being forced to leave after a “serious security threat”.
Last week Canon White revealed that an al-Qaeda chief had boasted that it would use doctors in terror attacks in Britain. At talks with Sunni Muslim leaders in Jordan in April he was told that “those who cure you are going to kill you”. It was only after the bungled London and Glasgow bombings that he understood the message.
An Arabic newspaper said that Canon White, 42. had angered Iraqi militants by trying to find where the hostages were being held. Pamphlets branding him as “no more than a spy” have been circulated in Shia areas of Baghdad threatening to kill the five if he did not leave Iraq at once.