Скачать или смотреть Iraqi Christians set about rebuilding in town re-taken from IS

(1 Apr 2018) Iraqi Christians, many of them displaced from around the country, are trying to rebuild their lives in the town of Telskof, on the outskirts of Mosul, which was retaken from the Islamic State group a year ago
Calm has returned to the small town that was for a long time a battleground between the militants and Kurdish forces.
The family of Samir Sheymon Toma was displaced from neighbouring Batnaya during the war and now lives in a rented home in Telskof.
His niece has recently given birth to a new child but they cannot go back because Batnaya has been very badly damaged.
Another reason they don't want to return, Toma says, is that the town is under control of Baghdad-backed militias and he doesn't trust them.
The situation for the displaced Christians in Telskof is complicated by the fact that in the recent confrontation between the Iraqi and Kurdish regional governments Batnaya found itself on the Iraqi side of the line and the road is still blocked.
Going home, even for a visit, takes a huge detour.
The family of Ilham Boutros Hurmus similarly has experienced many hardships.
They are originally from Baghdad but were displaced to Batnaya after the American invasion and the civil war.
They were then displaced from Batnaya by the IS and their house was damaged by an airstrike. Recently, Hurmus also lost her son in a car accident.
Her tragedies symbolise the hardship experienced by many Iraqi Christians, once a significant minority in the country, who were uprooted during more than a decade of civil war and religious extremism.
Her brother lives in the US, along with many other Iraqi Christians who have left the country in the last 15 years.
But Hurmus is adamant that she is not about to leave her country even though in Batnaya they are jobless and struggling.
She said she is trying to make the best of things, as she prepared an Easter meal.
Religious services have restarted in the church of St. George's and many Christians attended the Easter service.
But the future of their community remains uncertain.

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