Islamic State fighters have taken over the Mar Behnam monastery in northern Iraq and expelled its monks, according to a cleric and residents.
The sources said the jihadist moved into the 4th-century monastery, run by the Syriac Catholic church near the predominantly Christian town of Qaraqosh, on Sunday.
The fighters told the monks, “You have no place here anymore, you have to leave immediately,” according to a member of the Syriac clergy.
He said the five monks pleaded to be allowed to take some of the monastery’s relics, but the fighters refused and ordered them to leave on foot with nothing but their clothes.
Residents said the monks walked several miles along a deserted road before they were picked up by Kurdish peshmerga fighters who drove them to Qaraqosh.
The monastery is 10 miles southeast of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city which was captured by insurgents last month. Fleeing families and church leaders say that Mosul is now empty of Christians after a directive from the Islamic State demanded that they convert, pay tax, flee, or face death.
