ICC Note: As Iraqi Security Forces continue to liberate parts of Nineveh from ISIS, Christians are looking to return to their abandoned villages. Under militant occupation, churches and Christian homes were destroyed and vandalized by the radical terrorists. Now, as Christians make plans to restart their lives, security is the number one concern. Qaraqosh, in particular, has much rebuilding and recovery after two years of occupation in the largest Christian town of the Nineveh Plains.

01/25/2017 Iraq (Christian Post): Iraqi Christians are determined to return to their homelands despite devastation wreaked by ISIS.

Qaraqosh, the largest Christian town on Iraq’s Ninevah Plain, was largely destroyed under the jihadist occupation. Now back under Iraqi control, local Christian are insisting on better security as they prepare to go home.

Father Sharbil Eeso, a 72-year-old Catholic priest, has returned to Qaraqosh more than two years after he fled.

“Despite all the damage, I have hope for the future. If our security is guaranteed, Christians can continue to live in Iraq,” he said.

In an appeal for help from fellow Christians outside of the Middle East, he said: “I want to return to Qaraqosh when there is electricity and water again, although I think that safety is the main condition for returning.”

Speaking to the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, local salon owner Manal Matti, described how the militants set fire to the nearby Church of the Immaculate Conception and beheaded its statues.

“The jihadists used the church as a shooting range and the mannequins as targets. The mannequins are completely riddled [with bullets].”

ACN reports show that Qaraqosh’s St George’s Syriac Catholic Church was used by ISIS as an improvised bomb factory and contained hundreds of bombs and grenades.

The extremists also wrote battle plans on church walls and chemicals were found in the building together with instructions on how to mix them into explosives.

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