The small Iraqi town of Alqosh on the troubled Nineveh Plain has elected a female Christian as mayor, in a first for that country.

Lara Yussif Zara, a Catholic, was the unanimous choice of the municipal council last Thursday, defeating another candidate, according to the Catholic Herald.

Zara, who graduated in economics and management studies in 2006, replaces another Chaldean Christian, Abdul Micha, who was dismissed from the post after charges of corruption.

She has become the first ever Christian woman to be elected as a mayor in Iraq, and the second woman to achieve such as position after a Muslim, Zekra Alwach, became mayor of Baghdad in 2015.

For three years Alqosh was near the border with territory occupied by Islamic State, but now after the Iraqi 'liberation' from ISIS there are tensions in the largely Christian community over whether Christians and other minority groups should support moves by the government of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan for independence.

In May, Christian Today reported how in the wake of the onslaught in the area by ISIS, amid the rubble outside St George's Church near Alqosh, a battered wooden crucifix was discovered, symbolic of Christian hope in the area.

The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, and the Chaldean Archbishop, Bashar Warda of Erbil, came together in London to bless the crucifix.

The blessing was part of a programme now under way to persuade the many thousands of Christians who fled the terror in their homelands to consider returning.

The crucifix was discovered intact by Stephen Rasche, chief counsel and projects coordinator for Archbishop Warda.