The history pages of Iraq's Christian community lie in charred fragments on the floor of a fourth century monastery near Mosul which IS (Islamic State) militants ransacked during a two-year occupation that Iraqi forces ended this week, the Catholic News website reports today (November 23, 2016).
The jihadists at the Mar Behnam monastery burned a collection of books about Christian theology, scrapped off inscriptions written in Syriac -- the language used by Jesus -- and demolished sculptures of the Virgin Mary and the monastery's patron saint.
"Their fundamental goal was to destroy Christian history and civilization in the Nineveh plains," said Duraid Elias, commander of the Babylon Brigades, a Christian militia that helped retake the site.
The Nineveh plains -- a sprawling region north and east of Mosul -- are a mosaic of ethnic and religious communities with roots dating back to ancient Mesopotamia.
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