Bartella (; ) is a town that is located in the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq, about east of Mosul. Bartella was liberated from ISIL control on October 20, 2016 by Iraqi Special Operations Forces along with the Nineveh Plain Protection Units and PMF Brigade 30, who both currently control and run the city's security. The town is populated by Aramaic/Syriac Christians and Shabaks. The town had an Syriac majority prior to the Northern Iraq offensive of ISIL, while the Shabak population has risen to at least 35% of the population or a majority. History Early history The earliest known mention of Bartella was by Father Potrus Qasha in 1153, where he talked about Ignatius Elia'azar (1143-1164), the maphiryan of Ashur, making Bartella his home and see. Elia'azar reported directly to the Patriarch in Antioch, Syria. The congregation was upset with Elia'azar for changing the see location from the traditional Mor Mattai Monastery. An agreement was reached to return to Mar Mattai, with the tradition to visit Bartella regularly. Other maphiryans who made their see Bartella include: Dyonosius Saliba II (1222–1231) Gregorius Barsuma (1288–1308) Gregorius Mattai I (1317–1345) Gregorius Bar Qeenaya (d. 1361) Athinasius Abraham II (1365–1379) Cyril Joseph III (1458–1470) In 1171, the Kurds attacked Bartella, as well as the Mor Mattai Monastery. When the people of Nineveh heard this, they joined forced to fight back and succeeded. However, the monks at the monastery learned of another encroaching attack and agreed to sign a peace treaty with the Kurds to avoid more bloodshed. They paid the Kurds 30 golden dinariis with the agreement. As soon as the Kurds received the gold, they gathered a larger army of 1,500 people and attacked the monastery, causing a crack in its wall. They entered and killed 15 monks, while the others escaped. In 1201, a Christian priest and Muslim cleric in Bartella had a quarrel. The people in the town complained to the mayor, who punished the Muslim cleric with a beating. The cleric went to Mosul and gathered a large crowd by the main mosque, and later marched toward Bartella to destroy it. When they reached the town, the gates were closed and they couldn't enter. On their way back to Mosul, the mob broke into a church called MarZena and took all the valuables. Today, this church is the al-Khallal mosque. Between 1261 and 1369, the Mor Mattai Monastery was