“The Cross is the ISIS’s main enemy; today no trace of a cross can be seen in Mosul”

Mosul, September 23, 2015

A war is currently being waged against Christianity on the territory of the Biblical city of Nineveh, which is currently under control of the “Islamic State” militants: according to eyewitnesses’ evidence, the fanatics are trying their best to eliminate the very memory of the Christian presence in Mosul, reports Ankawa news agency.

In his report, sent to the Ankawa agency’s staff writer Yunus Zanoun, the journalist A.S. from Mosul gave information about ISIS’s intention to wipe out all the Christian symbols from Nineveh, and that they are working hard in order to achieve this ambition. “The cross is ISIS’s main enemy; that is why today no traces of crosses can be seen in Mosul,” A.S. noted.

According to the journalist, the terrorists threw down all the crosses from domes of Mosul churches within two weeks after seizing city; they organized raids on houses of Christian residents of Mosul to destroy all the crosses and icons in the city.

“The dwellings were ravaged with great fury – and the vestiges of this hatred for Christianity can be seen here to this day… As for churches and monasteries, whole teams are involved in the job of dynamiting or partially demolishing their buildings. For example, large-scale work at the St. George’s Monastery in the al-Arabi neighborhood of Mosul was carried out to dismantle the iron crosses from the fencing, while the St. Ephraim’s Monastery in the ash-Shurta neighborhood was deliberately “enlarged”—this was done to conceal a huge cross carved on the front of the monastery’s main church,” A.S. related.

At the same time, the Alsumaria.tv portal reported that “Islamic State” militants exploded a number of Christian homes in the Karakush district. There is still no information on the number of victims or the extent of damage to the residents’ property.