Iraqi military captures symbolic Mosul mosque
General declares ISIS caliphate ‘has fallen’
I RBIL , Iraq’s U.S.-backed I RAQ military seized the ruins of the famed al-Nuri mosque in Mosul on Thursday and declared the end to the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate three years after the militant group stormed into the country.
“The fictitious state has fallen,” Brig. Gen. Yahya Rassol, a military spokesman, told Iraqi state TV.
Lt. Gen. Abd al-Amir Yarallah said in a statement that Iraqi forces control the ruins of the mosque and the minaret and are continuing their push to clear militants out of Mosul’s Old City.
Islamic State fighters destroyed much of the ancient mosque last week to keep the iconic structure from falling into the control of Iraqi forces as they neared recapture of the militants’ last major stronghold in Iraq.
Col. Ryan Dillon, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, called the capture of the mosque a “significant” victory for the government and expected an announcement from Iraq’s government within days about the complete liberation of Mosul.
The offensive to clear Iraq’s second largest city began in October and posed a major test for the country’s military, which has been backed by U.S. advisers and air support from a U.S.-led coalition of nations.
The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, seized Mosul in June 2014, when the radical group routed Iraq’s military.
The city is far from secure and several hundred militants suspected of standing their ground pose a significant danger because of sniper and mortar positions and bombs.
The fighters are trapped in an area of less than 1 square mile in dense neighborhoods where nearly 50,000 civilians remain, according to the Iraqi military.
Much of Mosul lies in ruins, including the 800-year-old mosque with its famous leaning minaret, known as al-Habda, or the hunchback.
The mosque is considered the prize in the Mosul offensive. It was there that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi made his infamous public speech in 2014 to announce the creation of a “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria shortly after the fall of Mosul.
Though militants are still fighting in Mosul and several smaller cities, the capture of the mosque will serve as a “big moral victory by the population of Iraq and our forces,” Gen. Abdul Rahman, the executive officer of the federal police, said.
“This is the temple of the Islamic State,” he said. “When we have taken it, we can say we destroyed the Islamic State forever.”