Iraq army seizes ruins of Mosul mosque from ISIL
June 29, 2017
Army captures Grand al-Nuri mosque where ISIL proclaimed its self-styled caliphate three years ago, state TV says.
A large part of the mosque was blown up by the ISIL last week [Reuters]
Iraqi government troops have captured the mosque in Mosul from where ISIL proclaimed its self-styled caliphate exactly three years ago, the Iraqi military said.
Seizing the 850-year-old Grand al-Nuri Mosque hands a symbolic victory to the Iraqi forces who have been battling for more than eight months to recapture Mosul, the northern city that served as ISIL’s de facto capital in Iraq.
“Their fictitous state has fallen,” Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, an Iraqi military spokesman, told state TV.
Iraqi authorities expect the battle to end in the coming days as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group has been bottled up in a handful of neighbourhoods of the Old City.
A large part of the mosque was blown up by the group last week.
The mosque and its famed Al-Hadba (hunchback) leaning minaret were Mosul landmarks and also held major significance in the history of ISIL rule in Iraq.
