A member of the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU), a small Christian militia charged with protecting the predominantly Christian Iraqi town of Qaraqosh (Hamdaniya), stands beneath a Christian cross with the NPU flag hovering by, in the town which lies some 30 kilometres east of the northern city of Mosul, on May 5, 2017. Qaraqosh was retaken by Iraqi forces in October 2016, after it had been ravaged by Islamic State (IS) group fighters who seized it in June 2014 as they rampaged across parts of northern Iraq, capturing second city Mosul and swathes of the area known as the Nineveh Plain, home to much of the county's dwindling Christian minority. / AFP PHOTO / FADEL SENNA