Isis destroys mosque in ‘declaration of defeat’
Iraqi authorities say Isis (Islamic State) has shown it is losing the fight for Mosul after its fighters destroyed the city’s al-Nuri Mosque and its iconic leaning minaret, known as alHadba.
“Daesh’s bombing of the al-Hadba minaret and the al-Nuri Mosque is a formal declaration of their defeat,” Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a tweet yesterday, using the Arabic acronym for Isis.
The mosque, which is also known as Mosul’s Great Mosque, is where Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a so-called 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.
An Isis statement posted online shortly after the Ministry of Defence reported the mosque’s destruction blamed an airstrike by the United States for the loss of the mosque and minaret.
The US-led coalition rejected the Isis claim.
A coalition spokesman, US Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, told the Associated Press that coalition aerial surveillance confirmed the mosque had been destroyed, but he said a US strike was not to blame.
Isis fighters initially attempted to destroy the minaret in July 2014.
The militants said the structure contradicted their fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, but Mosul residents converged on the area and formed a human chain to protect it. Isis has demolished dozens of historic and archaeological sites in and around Mosul, saying they promoted idolatry.
“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,” US Major General Joseph Martin, the commander of coalition ground forces in Iraq, said in a written statement.
The mosque sat on the southern edge of the Old City, the last Isis stronghold inside Mosul. Iraqi forces launched a push into the Old City earlier this week, but have made slow progress as the last Isis fighters there are holed up with an estimated 100,000 civilians according to the United Nations.
Earlier this month, Mosul residents reported that Isis fighters began sealing off the area around the mosque.
The fight to retake Mosul was launched more than eight months ago and has displaced more than 850,000 people. While Iraqi forces have experienced periods of swift gains, combat inside the city has been gruelling and deadly for both Iraqi forces and civilians.