Praying for their lives: Iraqi Christians attend Sunday service just 50 miles from front line against ISIS marauders

These striking pictures show Iraqi Christians praying for their lives and livelihoods - as just a few miles away, Islamic State militants fight to take both away from them.

The men and women who went to Sunday Mass yesterday at St Joseph Church in Irbil, northern Iraq, form part of a fast-dwindling minority as extremists sweep through their nation enforcing a violent interpretation of Sunni Islam.

Only a thin line of Kurdish fighters, supported by a few hundred U.S. troops, separate them from the violence which has engulfed wide stretches of Iraq, including the city of Mosul 50 miles away.

 Militants have threatened those who do not follow their interpretation of Islam with death.

Christians, because of their association with the West, are among the most hated by the Islamists.

Many Christians have fled the country in the latest crisis, adding to the numbers which observers say have been trickling out since the 2003 war and the insurgencies that followed.

Reports claimed there were 1.5million Christian Iraqis in 2003, but this number dropped to less than 500,000 last year. Some estimates of the current number have been as low as 200,000.