VATICAN CITY, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Pope Benedict offered his deepest sympathies on Sunday to the families of three Christian girls beheaded in Indonesia as they walked to school near a Muslim town. The Vatican called Saturday's killings "barbaric" and said in a statement that the Pope would pray for "the return of peace among the people" of the region, long plagued by sectarian violence.
Six machete-wielding men dressed in black attacked the 16 to 19-year-old students near the Muslim town of Poso on Saturday, leaving the girls' headless bodies, dressed in brown uniforms, at the site of the killings.
Their heads were found at separate locations two hours later by residents.
"The Holy Father entrusted the Bishop of Manado, Mons. Joseph Theodorus Suwatan, to relay to the victims' families and the diocese his deepest condolences," the Vatican said in a statement.
Muslim-Christian clashes in the Poso area killed 2,000 people from 1998 through 2001, when a peace deal was agreed.
While the worst violence abated after the deal, there have been sporadic outbreaks since. Bombings in May in the Christian town of Tentena killed 22 people.
About 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslim.
(Additional reporting by Ade Rina and Tomi Soetjipto in Jakarta)
