ICC Note: The church bell of Keramlis, Iraq rang out for the first time in over to years to announce its first prayer service since liberation. Emotions ran high as Christians residents stepped foot in their destroyed hometown and desecrated church. ISIS had burned almost everything, they decapitated a statue of the virgin Mary and even desecrated a tomb. After seeing the destruction to both the church and the homes in Keramlis, many seemed less inclined to return permanently. The two-year occupation displaced most of the villagers to neighboring Kurdistan and Europe. The future of this town along with many others still remains uncertain as Christians are fearful of returning home.

A confessional had been turned into a closet, a tomb had been desecrated, red prayer benches were burned. As the Rev. Thabet Habib recited prayers at the St. Addai church, the sound of broken glass crunched beneath worshippers’ feet.

Keramlis, a Christian town on the Nineveh plains in northern Iraq, fell to IS in August 2014, two months after the extremist group took Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul and surrounding areas, sending most of its inhabitants fleeing. The town was retaken by Iraq forces three weeks ago as part of the push for Mosul, but most of its homes were destroyed in the process.

Many residents of the ancient Assyrian town some 18 miles southeast of Mosul now live in camps in Iraq’s Kurdish region. Hundreds of others fled to neighboring countries, Europe, the United States and elsewhere.

Some who returned Sunday came to attend a prayer service in their hometown, and check on their homes.

Emotions ran high when the church bell tolled for the first time in more than two years, but standing amid the ruins of their church, few could summon hope for the future.

“It was amazing, I got goose bumps. The bell for us means a great deal,” said Sahir Shamoun, an athletics teacher who drove four hours with his wife from Zakho, near the Turkish border, to check on their home Sunday.

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