St. Elijah's Monastery of Mosul has been completely wiped out. For 1,400 years the compound survived assaults by nature and man, standing as a place of worship

Iraq's oldest Christian monastery that has stood for 1,400 years is destroyed in seconds: Satellite image reveals how ISIS reduced sacred site to rubble

• Dair Mar Elia, known as St. Elijah's Monastery in English, has been completely levelled by ISIS 
• The monastery, located south of Mosul, northern Iraq, was built in the 600s, making it 1,400 years old
• It was Iraq's oldest Christian monastery and had recently functioned as a  place of worship for U.S. troops
• For more of the latest Islamic State news visit www.dailymail.co.uk/isis
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• These persecutions have happened to our church more than once, but we believe in the power of truth, the power of God,' said Boji. 
  He is part of the Detroit area's Chaldean community, which became the largest outside Iraq after the sectarian bloodshed that followed the U.S. invasion in 2003. Iraq's Christian population has dropped from 1.3 million then to 300,000 now, church authorities say.
  The destruction of the monastery is a blow for U.S. troops and advisers who served in Iraq and had tried to protect and honor the site, a hopeful endeavor in a violent place and time.
  Suzanne Bott, who spent more than two years restoring St. Elijah's Monastery as a U.S. State Department cultural adviser in Iraq, reportedly cried when she saw the images.
  'Oh no way. It's just razed completely,' said Bott. 'What we lose is a very tangible reminder of the roots of a religion.'
  Army reserve Col. Mary Prophit remembered a sunrise service in St. Elijah where, as a Catholic lay minister, she served communion.
  'I let that moment sink in, the candlelight, the first rays of sunshine. We were worshipping in a place where people had been worshipping God for 1,400 years,' said Prophit, who was deployed there in 2004 and again in 2009.
  'I would imagine that many people are feeling like, 'What were the last 10 years for if these guys can go in and destroy everything?'' said Prophit, a library manager in Glenoma, Washington.  By ASSOCIATED PRESS
  
  
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