ICC Note: Bartella, an ancient Christian town in Iraq, was reclaimed from ISIS on Saturday, Oct. 22. The question now remains, will Christians return to their homes? Bells rang out from the church in the center of town, but the dangers of ISIS occupation still lurk. The fight for Mosul, just nine miles from Bartella, is expected to be the fiercest military encounter since 2003.

10/24/2016 Iraq (The Telegraph): Hymn books lay scattered on the ground, the pews upturned. Graffiti scrawled on the walls.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) may have spared Mart Shmony Syriac Orthodox Church, but exiled residents of the ancient Christian town of Bartella will find it hard to forgive what they did to.

Inhabited by Assyrians since the first century, Bartella is one of the oldest Christian towns in the world.

Iraq’s elite Golden Division fought fiercely to reclaim it from the jihadists this week, and on Saturday its bells rang out over the town for the first time in two years.

The road west into Bartella, just nine miles from Mosul’s outskirts, was littered with the remnants of the battle: bullet casings, deactivated improvised explosive devices, and shrapnel from car bombs.

Each house along the way had a spray-painted sign at its entrance: marked either “property of the Islamic State”, “Sunni Muslim”, or “Nasrani”, a derogatory Arabic word for Christians.

We reached the centre of the town in a column of humvees. Black-clad troops stood victoriously on top, clutching guns, knives and meat cleavers.

“We are the heroes of Golden Division, we will not stop until we reach Mosul,” they chanted.

One soldier, Ahmed, grabbed me by the hand and led me to see the church. We had to run quickly in between the houses as he said there was still an Isil sniper that they had not yet managed to capture.

Ahmed’s radio crackled: “Daesh is firing up ahead, do not go any further,” the voice said sternly in Arabic.

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