Church trashed by ISIS holds service for the first time in 8 years.
Easter was extra special for one Christian community in Iraq this Easter as it opened for services for the first time since being desecrated by ISIS militants eight years ago.
St Kyriakos's Chaldean Catholic Church, Batnaya, was attacked by ISIS in 2014. Militants decapitated statues, smashed the altar and used sacred images as target practice.
In the nearby Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, militants scrawled anti-Christian graffiti on the walls.
One example read, "O, you [expletive] slaves of the Cross, we will kill you all... You dirty people, you do not belong here."
According to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), which has been supporting the community, the church was virtually "razed to the ground" by the time ISIS was pushed out of the town.
Batnaya was the most badly damaged among the dozen or so Christian towns and villages in the Nineveh Plains targeted by ISIS. CT.
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