Pope Francis blesses faithful at church in Qaraqosh

Pope Francis on Sunday arrived at a church in Qaraqosh on the final day of the first ever papal visit to Iraq.

The pontiff travelled to the Church of the Immaculate Conception, which was once damaged by the Islamic State group during their more than two years of rule in the Iraqi town.

He was expected to hear testimonies from residents and pray in the church, which was believed to have been torched by IS and has been restored in recent years.

Only a fraction of families have returned to the town after fleeing the IS onslaught in 2014.

The Pope was scheduled to wrap up with a Mass at a stadium in Irbil, in the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region, that is expected to draw as many as 10,000 people.