Wednesday, July 08, 2015

St Mary's Church in Mosul reportedly destroyed

Mosul: Isis Blows Up Another Ancient Church in Iraq, 4 Children Killed Accidentally (Johnlee Varghese, International Business Times).
The Islamic State (Isis) militants accidentally killed four children while blowing up an ancient church in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

The historical St Mary's church was destroyed by the Isis on Monday, Kurdish news source - Rudaw reported.

The four Iraqi children were near the church and were killed in the explosion, Saeed Mamuzini, media officer of the Mosul branch of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (PDK), told Rudaw.

Mamuzin added that the church located in central Mosul was "thousands of years" old.

[...]
I cannot find any information on how old the Chaldean Catholic Church of the Virgin Mary in Mosul is (was?), but this article seems to indicate that there is a tradition that it is ancient.

More on ISIS's assault on the past is here and here and many links.