The first mass in two years after the defeat of ISIS in Iraq

By Robert Alfares

For the first time in two years, bells rang out on the roof of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in the Iraqi town of Qaraqosh, which was feed from the Islamic State’s grip  after an intense fight.

. Dozens of civilians attended.

“Today Qaraqosh is free of Daesh,”  said archbishop Salar Boudaq  using another term for ISIS. “Our role today is to remove all the remnants of [ISIS],” he said. “This includes erasing sedition, separation and conflicts, which victimized us.”

Iraqi Christian soldiers attended  the first mass at the Grand Immaculate Church since it was recaptured from Islamic State in Qaraqosh, near Mosul in Iraq October 30, 2016. Christian soldiers attended  the first Sunday mass at the Grand Immaculate Church (

Dozens of Christians in northern Iraq have hesitantly returned to church for the first time in over two years after their town was freed from Isis.

Quraqosh, to the south of the Isis stronghold of Mosul, was recaptured from the jihadis as Iraqi coalition forces continue their two-week-old assault to drive Isis from the city.

Church bells rang out from the damaged bell tower for the first time in years as townspeople and troops erected makeshift wooden crosses on the roof of the Church of the Immaculate Conception

Inside the church, the walls were blackened and charred from fires lit by Isis fighters as they retreated from the town last week, and statues lay on the floor in pieces.

But despite the chaos, dozens of civilans and members of the security forces approached the ruined altar to receive holy communion from the Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Mosul Salar Boulaq.

“Today Qaraqosh is free of Daesh [Isis],” Archbishop  told worshippers.

“Political and sectarian strife, separating between one man and another, between ruler and follower, these mentalities must be changed,” he said..