Free Republic

AMERICAN PASTOR DIES IN IRAQI AMBUSH By Jeremy ReynaldsSpecial Correspondent for ASSIST News Service BAGHDAD, IRAQ  (ANS) -- The U.S. military has confirmed that gunmen killed an American pastor when the taxi he was riding in was ambushed outside Baghdad. The Baptist Press reported that John Kelley, 48, was pastor of Curtis Corner Baptist Church, an independent Baptist church in South Kingstown, R.I. He was traveling with a number of other ministers who went to Iraq on a two-week trip to explore the possibility of starting a church there. U.S. paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division learned of the Feb....

The U.S. military also said Monday that gunmen killed an American Baptist minister from Rhode Island and wounded three other pastors in a weekend ambush south of the capital.

PROVIDENCE -- A South Kingstown missionary was shot to death in Iraq when gunmen opened fire on his vehicle in an attack that also wounded three others, according to a member of his church. John Kelley, 48, was traveling near Baghdad with several other pastors when a white sedan pulled up alongside them and opened fire, said Roland Vukic, of Charlestown, a member of Curtis Corner Church and a close friend of Kelley's. Vukic said he was told of the incident in a phone call Saturday from another pastor who was also in Iraq. U.S. paratroopers learned of Saturday's attack...