An altar of a damaged church is seen in the town of Qaraqosh, south of Mosul, Iraq, April 11, 2017. Marko Djurica: "In April 2017 I was on an assignment in Iraq, covering the battle between Iraqi forces and Islamic State fighters. Every day the Reuters team would go to the frontline from Erbil to west Mosul where the fights were going on. Each day on the road we would pass the small town of Qaraqosh. Once home for about 50,000 mostly Iraqi Christians, now it was completely empty, a ghost town. Iraqi forces kicked out Islamic State fighters but citizens were still afraid to go back to their homes. The town once had 12 churches with one more than 1000 years old. Now all were destroyed or badly ruined. Burnt-out altar of a church was one of the images I took that made me very sad." REUTERS/Marko Djurica/File Photo SEARCH "POY IS" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "REUTERS POY" FOR ALL BEST OF 2017 PACKAGES. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY