Birthplace of Isis caliphate lies in ruins
IRAQ: The Grand Mosque of Mosul, where the leader of Islamic State declared his ‘‘caliphate’’ three years ago, has been destroyed, along with its leaning minaret, as Iraqi forces moved in to retake it.
Iraqi commanders accused Isis of deliberately blowing up the mosque, formally known as the alNuri Mosque and a symbol not only of the city but also of the country. In better times its crooked minaret, the al-Hadba, featured on souvenirs and postcards.
Isis issued a statement attributing the destruction to a United States air strike.
‘‘Blowing up the al-Hadba minaret and the al-Nuri mosque amounts to an official acknowledgement of defeat,’’ Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on his website.
The mosque had huge political significance for Isis, accounting for its use by al-Baghdadi for his announcement of a caliphate on June 29, 2014, two weeks after his forces swept through northern Iraq and seized Mosul.
It was named after Nur al-Din al-Zinki, the greatest Muslim commander in the time of the Crusades before Saladin. He succeeded in uniting Syria against the Christian foe.
Tradition has it that the building of the mosque was ordered by Nur al-Din himself, shortly before his death. It was completed in 1172. The minaret started listing not long afterwards, and by the 14th century had already acquired its nickname al-Hadba, the hunchback.
If it has been deliberately destroyed, it would be one more in a long list of historic monuments to which Isis has taken bulldozers and explosives. On the opposite, east bank of the Tigris River in Mosul, the militants blew up the shrine of the Prophet Jonah, which was also a mosque. They attacked historical and biblical sites such as Nineveh, Nimrud and Hatra with jackhammers.
- The Times, Reuters