Daesh explodes Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Iraq’s Mosul
The Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group has blown up the landmark Grand al-Nuri Mosque of Mosul and its leaning minaret where the group’s leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi announced the formation of a so-called caliphate after capturing the northern city in 2014, the country’s army said.
“Our forces were advancing toward their targets deep in the Old City and when they got to within 50 meters (yards) of the Nuri mosque, Daesh committed another historical crime by blowing up the Nuri mosque and the Hadba” minaret, said Nineveh Liberation Operation Commander Lieutenant General Abdul Amir Yarallah in a statement released on Wednesday night.
However, the terrorist group said US-led airstrikes had caused the damage, a claim denied by the US.
The mosque was more than 800 years old that its destruction has brought widespread condemnation.
In the same time, the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, has said the destruction of the Great Mosque is an admission by the militants that they are losing the fight for the country’s second-largest city.
Video released by Iraq's military appears to show Nouri Mosque in Mosul being detonated by explosives. pic.twitter.com/EnY6CHmMA7
— Tamer El-Ghobashy (@TamerELG) June 21, 2017
“Daesh’s bombing of the al-Hadba minaret and the al-Nuri mosque is a formal declaration of their defeat,” Abadi said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
US Army Major-General Joseph Martin said the mosque destruction showed ISIL’s brutality.
“The responsibility of this devastation is laid firmly at the doorstep of ISIS,” said Martin in a statement.
“This is a crime against the people of Mosul and all of Iraq, and is an example of why this brutal organisation must be annihilated.”
