Fight nears ISIS site

Iraqi forces battling Islamic State militants in Mosul have approached the mosque where the leader of the extremist group declared its self-styled caliphate in the summer of 2014.

Black smoke billowed from the area around the alNuri Mosque, also known as the Great Mosque, as helicopters fired down. At least two large mushroom clouds were seen rising from apparent suicide car-bomb explosions, according to live Associated Press footage.

ISIS leader Abu Bakr alBaghdadi delivered a sermon in al-Nuri mosque in July 2014, declaring an Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria.