ISIS wrecks Mosul’s old mosque, minaret

MINARET: IRAQ’S BELOVED LANDMARK

Irbil (Iraq), June 22: The Islamic State group destroyed Mosul’s 12th Century al-Nuri mosque and its iconic leaning minaret known as alHadba, when fighters detonated explosives inside the structures late on Wednesday night, Iraq’s ministry of defence said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi tweeted early on Thursday morning that the destruction was an admission by the militants that they are losing the fight for Iraq’s second-largest city.

“Daesh’s bombing of the al-Hadba minaret and the al-Nuri mosque is a formal declaration of their defeat,” al-Abadi said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

The mosque, which is also known as Mosul’s Great Mosque, is where ISIS leader Abu Bakr alBaghdadi declared a socalled Islamic caliphate in 2014 shortly after Mosul was overrun by the militants. The minaret that leaned like Italy’s Tower of Pisa had stood for more than 840 years.

The ISIS group blew up the mosque during the celebrations of Laylat al Qadr, the holiest night of the year for Muslims. The “Night of Power” commemorates the night the Quran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad during the Muslim holy month of Ramzan, which is now underway.

MOSUL’S “HADBA” leaning minaret, whose destruction has been blamed on jihadists, was one of the most beloved landmarks of Iraq, its Pisa and Eiffel towers all rolled into one.

THE HADBA, “hunchback” in Arabic, was completed in the 12th Century and stood as the last remnant of the original Nuri mosque, whose rebuilt version was also destroyed on Wednesday.