IRAQI CHRISTIANS FEAR EXTINCTION SEE NO RELIEF FROM ISIS:

 Iraqi Christians gathered in Baghdad over the weekend to mark Easter but celebrations were tempered by fears that ISIS terrorists would eradicate their shrinking community, even as the army launched a USA-backed offensive to retake Mosul, their ancestral homeland. In mid-2014, Christians in Mosul were forced to flee when ISIS seized the northern city and began destroying centuries-old religious sites, ending a presence that once numbered in the tens of thousands and dates back to Christianity's earliest years. USA backed Iraqi forces launched an offensive against ISIS last week touted as the beginning of a broader campaign to clear areas around Mosul, though progress has been slow. "We are threatened with extinction. Every day we are being depleted. Our people are travelling, migrating," said Father Muyessir al-Mukhalisi, a priest at Saint George's Church in east Baghdad. Members of the Christian minority have moved from northern towns, and many have joined the masses fleeing to Europe. Their numbers have fallen to a few hundred thousand from about 1.5 million before the USA-led invasion in 2003. (Newsmax) Pray that protection, encouragement and restoration will come to Syrian Christians as ISIS forces are increasingly driven back.