After the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul and its famous leaning minaret were blown Wednesday, a blame game started between the Islamic State group (ISIS) and the USA blaming each other for the act.
Staff Lieutenant General Abdulamir Yarallah, the Iraqi commander leading the anti-ISIS offensive in Mosul, said the Hadba minaret, constructed in 1172 AD, was also destroyed. Aerial photos show that the mosque and minaret has been largely destroyed.
ISIS's Amaq news agency accused American aircraft of destroying the mosque, a claim swiftly denied by the US-led coalition fighting the militant group.
"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 responsibility of this devastation is laid firmly at the doorstep of ISIS (Daesh)", U.S Army Major General Joseph Martin, commander of the coalition's ground component, said in a statement. In the background is the leaning minaret. Centcom said ISIS was exclusively responsible for the destruction of the landmark, as American forces vowed to bring the terrorists to justice.
ISIS has reportedly blown up the historic al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul, Iraq where the organization's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced the establishment of the new Islamic Caliphate three years prior.
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ISIS forces have been driven from most of Mosul but still control about 4 square kilometers of the city, according to The Wall Street Journal.
In statement to state-run Iraqia TV, a military official said: "We have broken the siege of IS and allowed the civilians to leave". The fight to retake the country's second largest city, which has been a key ISIS stronghold, was launched more than eight months ago and has displaced more than 8,50,000 people.
Thousands of Iraqi security forces, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, Sunni Arab tribesmen and Shia militiamen, supported by US-led coalition warplanes and military advisers, are involved in the battle to retake the key city, which was launched on 17 October previous year.
The Islamic State fighter earlier in 2014 had made an attempt to destroy the minaret, saying the structure contradicted their fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. Residents said IS fighters ordered families living in the area to evacuate in preparation for a final stand.
The historical mosque in the Old City was particularly famous for its leaning minaret.
On Tuesday Iraqi forces said they were releasing civilians previously trapped under IS control in the Old City.
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