Texas missionary killed in Iraq
12:43 PM CST on Tuesday, March 16, 2004
FORT WORTH — A Rowlett man is one of four U.S. missionaries killed in a drive-by attack in Iraq.
The Virginia-based Southern Baptist International Mission Board identified the dead Texan as David E. McDonnall, 28, of Rowlett. McDonnall died Tuesday morning on a helicopter that was transporting him to a military hospital in Baghdad after four U.S. military surgeons worked for six hours to save his life, the mission board said.
McDonnall's wife, Carrie Taylor McDonnall, 26, remains in critical condition, the mission board said. She is the only survivor of the attack.
The McDonnalls were traveling with a newlywed couple connected to the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. Also killed were Larry T. Elliott, 60, and his 58-year-old wife, Jean Dover Elliott, both of Cary, North Carolina, and Karen Denise Watson, 38, of Bakersfield, California.
The group was scouting the best location for a water purification project, said Michelle DeVoss of the First Baptist Church in Cary, N.C.
Lt. Col. Joseph Piek, a spokesman for American forces in Mosul, said the five Americans were traveling in one car on the eastern side of the city when they were attacked.
An off-duty Iraqi policeman found the car shortly after the late Monday afternoon shooting. Three of the victims were dead. The officer took the two wounded to an Iraqi hospital. U.S. Army air medical evacuation helicopters later transported them to a combat support hospital in Mosul.
Iraqi police and the FBI were involved in the investigation.
"They were wonderful," said E. Chung, a friend of the McDonnalls. "They were wonderful people. They were just God-loving and very passionate."
David McDonnall graduated from the seminary in 2002; his wife was a current student in the master's program.
Seminary students planned prayer vigils Tuesday in front of the B.H. Carroll Memorial Building at noon, 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Seminary President Dr. Paige Patterson is in Germany and will remain there until Carrie McDonnall arrives.
"These people had gone over there to give of themselves," said Greg Tomlin, a spokesman for the seminary. "They had put their lives on the line to provide food and clothing and medical care for the people of Iraq who suffered under a dictator's hand in war for so long, but they knew the risk when they went."
Tomlin said he hopes that news of the attack won't deter others from carrying out missionary work in that dangerous part of the world.
"Going overseas is an experience these students never forget," Tomlin said. "But they realize—just like Jesus said in the gospel—'Greater love has no man that he lays down his life for his friend.' And so they go that eventually they'll be able to share Gospel, good news in Jesus Christ, with these people."
The five knew they were traveling to a dangerous part of the world, but decided to press on, said Manda Roten, spokeswoman for the missionary board.
"Their personal love for God and their desire to obey him would outweigh any personal risks for them," Roten said.
On Tuesday, two Germans working on a water-supply project south of Baghdad were shot to death, bringing the number of foreigners killed in drive-by shootings in the past 24 hours to six.
The top U.S. military commander said the recent attacks were meant to divide the 36-member coalition occupying Iraq.
The two Germans were killed in an attack Tuesday on the outskirts of the town of Mussayab, 45 miles south of Baghdad, said Dr. Jamal Kadhim, head of the emergency department at Mussayab General Hospital. Their Iraqi driver and a police officer were also killed, and two police were wounded.
Kadhim said he saw the passports of the two Germans, though a German embassy official in Baghdad said one was German and one was Dutch. Police chief Col. A'ayed Omran said they were working on a project at Al-Razzaza, a lake near the southern city of Karbala, and that they were carrying weapons because they had been attacked in the same area before.
"Clearly there has been a shift in the insurgency and the way the extremists are conducting operations," Sanchez said during a military ceremony in the northern city of Tikrit. "It is very clear they are going after these targets that might create some splits within the coalition."
Sanchez cast doubt on whether Spain would withdraw its 1,300 troops from Iraq, as the new prime minister has said he will do if the United Nations doesn't take over peacekeeping by June 30. But he said that if they do, the loss would not be "a significant military problem" for the U.S.-led coalition.
"I think that it is still evolving," Sanchez said. "We will have to wait a few days."
Sanchez said the coalition could continue without Spain's contribution if it decides to withdraw.
"It is something we will have to adjust to," the general said. "But it is clearly manageable. It is not a significant military problem for the coalition to be able to cover that area."
The new prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, vowed to pull out Spanish forces during the election campaign. The United States plans to turn over sovereignty to Iraq by June 30 but has no plans to cede control of the military operation to the United Nations.
Zapatero's Socialist party was propelled to an upset victory in elections Sunday by anger over terrorist attacks in Madrid last week that killed 200 people. Voters accused the outgoing prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, of making Spain a target by supporting the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
In Mosul on Tuesday, an Iraqi woman whose sister works for the U.S. military was slain in a drive-by shooting that also wounded the woman's brother and father, police in the city said. Police said the slain woman, a pharmacist, may have been confused with her sister who works as a translator on a U.S. Army base in Mosul.
WFAA-TV Fort Worth bureau chief Barbara Griffith, WFAA-TV reporter Yolanda Walker and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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