By Reuters
Mohammed al-Ramahi and Azad Lashkari
The bells have rung out after two years of silence in the Mar Korkeis
church in the town of Bashiqa, some 15 km (10 miles) north of Mosul,
Islamic State's last major city stronghold in Iraq.
Kurdish
Peshmerga fighters retook the town on Nov. 7, ending two years of rule
by the hardline Sunni group which persecuted Christians and other
minorities in the Nineveh plains, one of the world's oldest centres of
Christianity.
Women trilled to celebrate the moment when a new
crucifix was erected on the church, replacing one that was broken by the
Islamic State militants.
The town is largely empty as the
Peshmerga have not finished clearing explosives and mines left behind by
the insurgents in their fight against U.S.-backed Iraqi and Kurdish
forces who launched an offensive on Mosul on Oct. 17.
"We want
people to be patient and not to return here until we completely clear
the area, as we want to ensure their safety," said Peshmerga Brigadier
General Mahram Yasin.
After seizing the Nineveh plains in 2014,
Islamic State issued an ultimatum to Christians: pay a tax, convert to
Islam, or die by the sword. Most abandoned their homes and fled to the
nearby autonomous Kurdish region.
The priest at the Mar Korkeis
church, Father Afram, said he would prefer Bashiqa to remain under the
control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and not revert to the
Iraqi central government in Baghdad, about 400 km (250 miles) to the
south.
"Of course we would prefer to be part of the KRG, because
of our proximity to the area and because, for the past 13 years, the
regional government has been looking after us," he said.
"Nobody
from Baghdad came here to say hello, at all," since the U.S.-led
invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein" he said.
Christianity in northern Iraq dates back to the first century AD.
The
number of Christians has fallen sharply during the violence which
followed the 2003 toppling of Hussein, and Islamic State's takeover of
Mosul two years ago saw the city purged of Christians for the first time
in two millennia.
From a Mosul mosque in 2014 Islamic State
leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a "caliphate" spanning parts of
Iraq and Syria. The recapture of Mosul would mark the effective defeat
of the group in Iraq.
(Writing by Saif Hameed; editing by Jason Neely)