Mosque destruction heralds Isil defeat, says Iraqi prime minister
THE destruction of the Mosul mosque where Isil’s leader declared his caliphate marks the group’s defeat, prime minister Haider al-abadi says.
The 12th century Grand Mosque of al-nuri was captured three years ago by jihadists, who blew it up on Wednesday night.
The mosque’s famous leaning minaret had dominated the skyline of Iraq’s second city for centuries and is pictured on the country’s 10,000 dinar banknote.
“Daesh’s bombing of the al-hadba minaret and the al-nuri Mosque is a formal declaration of their defeat,” Mr Abadi said. The militants had claimed a Us-led coalition air strike had brought down the ancient mosque, but the Iraqi army released aerial footage which appeared to show the moment Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) detonated explosives laid along the shaft.
The destruction of the minaret, which took place on the holiest day of the Islamic calendar, Laylat al-qadr, has shocked Muslims worldwide.
However, it had been widely anticipated, with commanders saying Isil would not have allowed Iraqi forces to score a hugely symbolic victory by recapturing the site.
Abu Bakr al-baghdadi, Isil’s leader, made his first and only public appearance at the pulpit of the mosque when he declared his so-called “caliphate”on June 29, 2014. Russia said yesterday it had “high confidence” that its air force had killed him in an air strike last month.
“They blew up this place in an attempt to cover up their heavy losses in the media, but the media and the people see the victories and see the collapse of Daesh,” said Brigadier General Falah Fadel al-obeidi, from the elite Counter-terrorism Service.
The destruction by jihadists of the leaning minaret, affectionately known as the Hadba, or Hunchback, “deepens the wounds” in war-torn Iraq, Irina Bokova, chief of the UN’S cultural agency, said yesterday.
“This new destruction deepens the wounds of a society already affected by an unprecedented humanitarian tragedy,” she said.