Stock Photo - 19 December 2018, Iraq, Mossul: Kurdish security forces and Peschmerga fighters protect the monastery of Mor Mattai, monastery of St. Matthew, on the mountain Dschabal Alfaf near Bartella and Mossul in northern Iraq. Mor Mattai Monastery is one of the oldest existing Christian monasteries in the world. Founded in 363, the monastery is currently maintained by the Syrian Orthodox Church. Since the outbreak of the Iraq crisis in 2014, the Islamic State (IS) has threatened the monastery. Only a few kilometres from the monastery ran the front line, which was held against the IS by Kurdish Peschmerga, thus saving the monastery from destruction. Photo: Jens Büttner/dpa-Zentralbild/ZB. - Mossul/Iraq