The al-Nuri mosque - also known as the Great Mosque - is the place where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivered his infamous speech, declaring a caliphate after his fighters took over Mosul, on July 4, 2014.
The US-backed Iraqi Ministry of Defence say that the mosque, believed to have been constructed in the 12 Century, was destroyed as their forces advanced in the Old City area of Mosul.
A month after ISIS forces overran Mosul in June 2014, Baghdadi, gave a Friday sermon from the pulpit inside the mosque - his first public appearance in many years.
"The minaret of Al-Hadba has been here forever, it is part of the history of Mosul, it is the symbol of the city", Ahmed Thilij Hamed, a 49-year-old resident of a neighbourhood near the Old City, told AFP on Monday.
Islamic State had previously destroyed one of the other deeply revered landmarks in Mosul, the Iraq, said in a written statement.
They have also covered many streets with sheets of cloth to obstruct air surveillance, making it hard for the advancing troops to hit them without a risk to civilians.
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the incidents could be "very dangerous" and lead to an escalation of the war. Iranian drones have been flying fairly regularly over southern Syria and Syrian aircraft have begun to venture there as well.
The Islamic State has blown up The Great Mosque of al-Nuri in western Mosul, according to USA and Iraqi forces.
The ongoing battle for Mosul has seen deadly street fighting and heavy military casualties, as well as hundreds of civilians killed in airstrikes, in the effort to root out the remaining pockets of ISIS fighters from Iraq's second-largest city. Islamic State fighters are cornered in a portion of the city's closely packed neighborhoods on the Mosul's west side.
The U.S. military, too, called the destruction of the mosque a "crime".
Responding to the destruction, coalition commander Maj.
The al-Nuri Great Mosque was located in western Mosul's Old City, not far from the Tigris River. "Little did I know it was for the last time", Townsend said in a statement. Iraqi forces' humvees advance toward Mosul, late Tuesday.
The Counter Terrorism Service had advanced to within 200-300 metres of the mosque during a push to take over the spot where the so-called caliphate was declared, according to the military and the senior commander of the global coalition fighting Isis. "There seems to be a genuine mutual trust between the security forces and the local population born out of mutual respect, and I have heard it multiple times today".
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