Father Douglas Al-Bazi saw his church blown up in front of him before crazed jihadis knocked his teeth knocked out with a hammer, broke his nose and back and shot him in the leg.

The Christian population of Iraq has been decimated from two million in 2003 to less than 200,000 today.

Father Al-Bazi was captured and tortured for nine days by al-Qaeda on his way home from a Mass in Iraq in 2006.

He said: “They destroyed my car, they blew up my church on front of me. I got shot by AK-47 in my leg. The bullet is still in my leg. And I had been kidnapped for nine days.

“They smash my nose and my teeth by hammer. And they broke one of my back discs.”

Fatrher Al-Bazi was captured by Islamist militants in a planned raid as he made his way to a friend’s house after taking Mass in November 2006.

Two cars blocked off the road before gun-toting jihadis dragged him from his vehicle, threw him in the boot and sped off.

The fighters – who Father Al-Bazi says were wearing Iraqi government uniforms and had access to state police cars and ambulances – then began their campaign of torture as they attempted to secure a huge ransom payout from the church.

He revealed: “When I arrived they took me outside and I found myself on the ground with a lot of blood on my face. One of them hit me with his knee to my face and back and broke my nose. Then they took me inside and they brought chains and I spent nine days there in this way.

“My cell was a tiny toilet and my head had to rest in the sink. After the second day they used a hammer and they started to break my teeth. There was blood in my mouth and when I spat my teeth and blood came out. One of them told me ‘don’t be worried, you have a lot of teeth and we have all night’.

“They hit me in my shoulder and my back and they broke one of the discs in my back. At one point they said they were going to cut off my head and put the head of a dog in its place then send it to my relatives.

“Even now I never go to my bed without being sure there’s a bottle of water near my bed because they left me without water for days. They were a horrible nine days.”