Mosul, Iraq, Mar 29, 2021 / 17:10 pm
A statue of the Virgin Mary that had been desecrated by the Islamic State but was later restored has been returned to its original church.
The statue was decapitated, and its hands cut off, in Karemlesh, a largely Christian town 18 miles east of Mosul, during the Islamic State's occupation of the villages in the Nineveh Plains from 2014 to 2017. It belongs to St. Adday church.
The statue has been partially restored. The original head was found in the rubble when the statue was recovered.
The head has been placed back onto the statue in a manner that still shows the damage from where it had been decapitated, and the hands dangle below the wrist.