Despite the Pope's comments dying down in the media, attacks on Assyrian Christians continued and on 9 October Islamic extremist group kidnapped priest Paulos Iskander in Mosul. Iskander's church as well as several other churches placed 30 large posters around the city to distance themselves from the Pope's words. The relatives of the Christian priest who was beheaded three days later in Mosul, have said that his Muslim captors had demanded his church condemn the pope's recent comments about Islam and pay a $350,000 ransom. Ancient Assyrian objects and buildings have been labeled by Kurdish authorities as Kurdish. Also many names of places and towns have been changed to Kurdish names. Observers have also reported that Kurdish forces often used to practice their shooting on important Assyrian cultural heritage sites.