DHAKA: Satellite images confirm that the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been destroyed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).

St Elijah’s stood on a hill near the northern city of Mosul for 1,400 years.

But analysts said the images, obtained by the Associated Press, suggested it had been demolished in late 2014, soon after IS seized the city, reports the BBC.

A Catholic priest from Mosul warned that its Christian history was ‘being barbarically leveled’.

‘We see it as an attempt to expel us from Iraq, eliminating and finishing our existence in this land,’ said Father Paul Thabit Habib, who now lives in Kurdish-administered Irbil.

IS has targeted Christians in Iraq and neighboring Syria, seizing their property and forcing them to convert to Islam, pay a special tax or flee.

The group has also demolished a number of monasteries and churches, as well as renowned pre-Islamic sites including Nimrud, Hatra and Nineveh in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria.

BDST: 1847 HRS, JAN 20, 2016
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