Ancient Christian Monastery Recaptured From ISIS

The fourth century Mar Benham monastery has survived Islamist atrocities before – and the signs are it will survive again.

On Sunday, Christian and Muslim fighters liberated the Syriac Orthodox monastery from Islamic State.

Soldiers who then went in yesterday to inspect the damage found it had not been totally destroyed, as had been feared.

But the Islamic State soldiers, who have occupied the monastery for the last two years after expelling the monks and blowing up St Benham's tomb, had also burned ancient Syriac manuscripts and destroyed sculptures.

The monastery was built by a repentant King Senchareb after he murdered his two children, Benham and Sarah, because they had converted to Christianity.

It has suffered and survived previous Islamist depradations. It was badly damaged by Persia's 18th century Muslim ruler Nader Shah when he went to war against the Christians of the Nineveh plains. 

"Their fundamental goal was to destroy Christian history and civilization in the Nineveh plains," Duraid Elias, commander of the Christian militia Babylon Brigades, told Reuters.

The Islamists removed the crosses and tried to erase all trace of Benham. 

Kalin describes how the sitting room was turned into a medical clinic and the monks' bedrooms used as prison cells. One corner was filled with satellite dishes confiscated from homes in Mosul and Islamic State graffiti was scrawled on the walles including the jihadist motto: "Remaining and expanding". 

This is Christian Iraq posted a video of the cross being re-erected at the monastery:

The soldiers re-erected crosses and the recapture of Bar Behnam was celebrated widely on social media. But the destruction wrought by Islamic State was also mourned:

Elias, who led troops wearing Jesus and Virgin Mary headbands and with large wooden crosses in the backs of trucks to re-erect on desecrated sites, told Reuters: "We are proving to the world that Christians are not weak. We are stronger than they imagined."

He described the revenge being taken by soldiers as they recaptured towns and villages from Islamic State.

"There are others. We are going one by one: for every Christian house they blew up, we blow up a house next to it," he said from atop the monastery, pointing out one such pair of buildings.

"This is war. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."