AP
Irbil (Iraq), June 22: The Islamic State group destroyed Mosul’s 12th century al-Nuri mosque and its iconic leaning minaret known as al-Hadba, when fighters detonated explosives inside the structures Wednesday night, Iraq’s Ministry of Defense said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi tweeted early Thursday that the destruction was an admission by the militants that they are losing the fight for Iraq’s second-largest city.
“Daesh’s bombing of the al-Hadba minaret and the al-Nuri Mosque is a formal declaration of their defeat,” al-Abadi said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
The mosque, which is also known as Mosul’s Great Mosque, is where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a so-called Islamic caliphate in 2014 shortly after Mosul was overrun by the militants. The minaret that leaned like Italy’s Tower of Pisa had stood for more than 840 years.
The IS group blew up the mosque during the celebrations of Laylat al Qadr, the holiest night of the year for Muslims.
The “Night of Power” commemorates the night the Quran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is now underway.
An IS statement posted online shortly after the Ministry of Defense reported the mosque’s destruction blamed an airstrike by the US for the loss of the mosque and minaret. However, the US-led coalition rejected the IS claim.
A coalition spokesman, US Army Col. Ryan Dillon, said that coalition aerial surveillance confirmed the mosque was destroyed, but he said a US strike was not the cause.
“We did not conduct strikes in that area at that time,” Dillon said.
