A statement dated from last week and purportedly issued by the Islamic State jihadist group that took over the city and large swathes of Iraq during a sweeping offensive last month warned Mosul’s Christians they should convert, pay a special tax, leave or face death.

Louis Raphaël I Sako, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon, told Agence France-Presse. “For the first time in the history of Iraq, Mosul is now empty of Christians.”

‘Mosul is now empty of Christians’ after Islamic State jihadist give ultimatum.