Pope calls for peace from ruins of Iraq’s war-battered Mosul

Pope Francis, surrounded by shells of destroyed churches, prays for the victims of war at Hosh al-Bieaa Church Square in Mosul, Iraq (Andrew Medichini/AP)

Pope Francis made an emphatic appeal for peaceful coexistence in Iraq on Sunday as he prayed for the country’s war dead amid the ruins of four demolished churches in Mosul, which suffered widespread destruction in the war against the Islamic State group.

Francis travelled to northern Iraq on the final day of his historic visit to minister to the country’s dwindling number of Christians, who were forced to leave their homes en masse when IS militants overtook vast swathes of northern Iraq in the summer of 2014.