(Worthy News) – The organization Open Doors has announced that they have joined with partners in Iraq to restore almost 700 homes destroyed after ISIS rose to power in the Nineveh Plains. Many local Christians fled their communities when the radical Islamic group took over large portions of Iraq and Syria, abandoning their homes—many of which were ransacked, fell into disrepair or destroyed.
The region has recently been liberated from the group—which openly persecuted anyone who did not adhere to their radical ideology.
In a statement, they explained:
After three years of Islamic State occupation and devastation in the wake of the ISIS war, our local partners are sharing stories of continued hope for the Nineveh Plains and the believers who were forced to flee when militants issued their ultimatum: “Convert, leave or die.” For more than two years, occupying Islamic jihadists tried to erase any evidence of Christianity from the city–burning churches, destroying crosses, toppling bell towers.