Insurgents seized the archbishop of Mosul from outside his church yesterday in one of the most daring assaults on Iraq’s Christian community since the war. The kidnapping of Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, of the Syrian Catholic Church, which has close ties with the Holy See, drew strong condemnation from the Vatican.

A spokesman said the church “condemns in the firmest manner this terrorist act and demands that Monsignor Casmoussa is rapidly returned safe and well.”

Archbishop Casmoussa, an Iraqi, is leader of the northern city’s 35,000 Syrian Catholics. The pope, who appointed him archbishop in 1999, recently condemned attacks on Catholic churches in Mosul.

There was no initial claim of responsibility or a ransom demand for the archbishop. In recent months Iraq’s 1.2 million Christians have been shattered by a deadly campaign instigated by Sunni insurgents. Churches have been bombed, priests threatened, and Christian neighborhoods subjected to random shootings.

Last March five car bombs were detonated outside churches in Mosul, killing more than 20 people. Last August, four churches in Baghdad and one in Mosul were attacked in co-ordinated car bombings. Twelve people were killed and 61 injured.

Church leaders in Iraq estimate that some 300,000 Christians have fled their homes since the American-led invasion. In Mosul, church leaders estimate that more than half the 80,000 Christians have fled. They believe Christians are targets because of their perceived links with U.S. forces, described as “Christian” invaders by Muslim extremists.

News of yesterday’s kidnapping came as hundreds of British troops began to arrive in the southern city of Basra and Washington and London mounted a rearguard campaign to stop other allies abandoning the military coalition in Iraq after this month’s elections.

About 400 soldiers from the 1st Battalion Royal Highland Fusiliers were flying from their base in Cyprus to Basra, headquarters of the British-controlled sector of southern Iraq.

Their presence is intended to help ensure security ahead of the January 30 elections. America and Britain are alarmed that several countries in the 30-member coalition are seizing on the elections to make a face-saving retreat or at least scale down their military presence.

The Dutch prime minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, confirmed yesterday that Holland’s 1,400 troops would leave in March. Ukraine is to pull out its 1,600 troops following the death of eight soldiers last week, and Poland is to cut its forces by about a third next month.