No Mass said in Mosul for first time in 1,600 years, says Archbishop

The Chaldean Catholic Church's Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, in Kurdish-governed northern Iraq, is reported as saying that for the first time in 1,600 years there was no Mass said in Mosul on Sunday June 15. This is the city taken over days before by ISIS forces.

Reports say the estimated 3,000 or so Christians still there - from about 35,000 in 2003 - all fled ahead of the militias' takeover of control, although some families were reported to have returned. They cited lack of job prospects and shelter once they'd become internally displaced, or refugees in Kurdish Iraq. Keep reading