Prayers return to Iraqi monastery ravaged by ISIS
23 Nov 2016 3:41 PM IST23 Nov 2016 3:41 PM IST
The priests fled and most have not returned.
Iraqi fighters battling to oust the Islamic State group from Mosul recaptured the Catholic Mar Behnam monastery on Sunday, allowing its priests to return. (Photo: AFP)- In 2015, IS jihadists posted a video of themselves blowing up the tomb. Today, little remains. It was part of an IS campaign of destruction as it swept across the region. (Photo: AFP)
- In 2015, IS jihadists posted a video of themselves blowing up the tomb. Today, little remains. It was part of an IS campaign of destruction as it swept across the region. (Photo: AFP)
- The priests fled and most have not returned, while those who came back are pained to see the monastery like this, in such bad condition, demolished. (Photo: AFP)
- When they seized it in 2014, the jihadists sacked the monastery, smashing carvings off the wall, decapitating a statue of the Virgin Mary and leaving the building as an empty shell. (Photo: AFP)
- Dating back to the fourth century AD, the Syriac Catholic monastery lies just 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of Iraq's second city which became a bastion of the jihadist group after it swept across northern Iraq in 2014. (Photo: AFP)
- (Photo: AFP)
Iraqi fighters battling to oust the Islamic State group from Mosul recaptured the Catholic Mar Behnam monastery on Sunday, allowing its priests to return. (Photo: AFP)
The priests fled and most have not returned.
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