Bartella, once home to thousands of Assyrian Christians, emptied in August 2014 when it fell to ISIS’ blitz across large parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria. Iraqi forces took it back in the first few days of the offensive that started in October.
“It is a mix of sadness and happiness,” said Bishop Mussa Shemali before a Christmas eve ceremony at Mar Shimoni church, which has been badly damaged, with crosses taken down and statues of saints defaced.
“We are sad to see what has been done to our holiest places by our own countrymen, but at the same time we are happy to celebrate the first mass in two years.”
The region of Nineveh is one of the most ancient settlements of Christianity, going back nearly 2,000 years, Reuters reported.
The region’s Christians were given an ultimatum: pay a tax, convert to Islam, or die by the sword. Most of them fled to the autonomous Kurdish region, across the Zab river, to the east.
It will be some time before people can return to the town which remains without basic services, and many buildings still bear the scars of the fighting.
“This is the best day of my life. Sometimes I thought it would never come,” said Shrook Tawfiq, a 52-year-old housewife displaced to the nearby Kurdish city of Erbil.
The front line in the battle to retake Mosul – the ISIS’ last major stronghold in Iraq, has moved a few kilometres to the west, into eastern districts where the militants are dug in among civilians, fighting off the advance of elite Iraqi units with suicide car bombs, mortars and snipers.
