Hymn books lay scattered on the ground, the pews upturned. Graffiti scrawled on the walls.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) may have spared Mart Shmony Syriac Orthodox Church, but exiled residents of the ancient Christian town of Bartella will find it hard to forgive what they did to it.

Inhabited by Assyrians since the first century, Bartella is one of the oldest Christian towns in the world.

It was home to some 15,000 people until the summer of 2014, when they fled Isil’s lighting strike across northern Iraq.