Fifty Christian families have returned to Mosul in northern Iraq as efforts continue to rebuild one church almost totally destroyed under ISIS rule.
When its fanatical warriors arrived in 2014, they first stole the bells, a gift from the French government in the 19th century, and sold them to be melted down.
The church was subsequently desecrated beyond recognition, some parts housing Yazidi captives, others reserved to torture and hang prisoners. ISIS tried to blow up the clock tower but failed. It was left holed but still standing, unlike the crooked minaret of the Great Mosque of Mosul, now just rubble under some scaffolding.
