Bones of Christian saint found in rubble of ISIS-destroyed monastery

The bones of Christian saints that were buried for hundreds of years have been unearthed after Islamic State (ISIS) blew up a Syrian monastery last year, new photos posted to Twitter show.

Channel 4 News visited the ruins of the Mar Elian (Saint Julian) monastery in Qaryatayn, a strategic town in the central Syrian province of Homs, which has been recaptured by government forces from ISIS. While there, reporter Lindsey Hilsum posted photos of the wrecked fifth-century sarcophagus with a skull and bones emerging from the rubble.

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Members of the extremist group bulldozed parts of the 1500-year-old monastery in August 2015, posting photos of the destruction on ISIS-linked Twitter accounts.  

Syrian and Russian airstrikes also damaged the site, which was continually inhabited from late antiquity to the early 19th century.

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