ISIS News Today 2017: Terror Group Blamed for al-Nuri Mosque Bombing; ISIS Points Finger at U.S.
ISIS has reportedly bombed the al-Nuri Mosque, which is a historic mosque in Mosul and is said to be the ideological center of the group.
On Wednesday, Iraq's military revealed in a statement that ISIS is responsible for blowing up the famous mosque, where the group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had self-declared a "caliphate" three years ago, when his militants invaded Mosul and swept through parts of Iraq and Syria.
Reuters reported that the bombing allegedly happened during a raid by the Iraqi forces, and Iraq Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the act of destroying the mosque served as an announcement of ISIS's defeat.
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''Blowing up the al-Hadba minaret and the al-Nuri mosque amounts to an official acknowledgement of defeat,'' the Prime Minister said.
However, the terror group reportedly released a statement via their news agency that ISIS is not responsible for the destruction of the al-Nuri Mosque. According to them, airstrikes by the U.S. warplanes were the cause.
U.S. officials were quick to counter the statement, telling CNN that the Islamic State militants' claim was false, denying that they carried out airstrikes in the area.
"As our Iraqi Security Force partners closed in on the al-Nuri mosque, ISIS destroyed one of Mosul and Iraq's great treasures," said U.S. Major General Joseph Martin. Several officials also told the news outlet previously that they had seen fighters and explosives in the said place.
Top U.S. commander, Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, was also quoted to have said: "I was just in Mosul Wednesday afternoon and close enough to see the mosque and its famous leaning minaret. Little did I know it was for the last time. This is just another example that ISIS is a cruel, heartless and godless ideology that cannot be permitted to exist in this world."
For residents of Mosul, the destruction of the mosque is a big loss and a devastating blow to their heritage, which has been suffering for many years of war since America's ousting of Saddam Hussein.
According to The New York Times, before ISIS invaded and took control over Mosul, efforts of protecting and rehabilitating the minaret were supposedly started by the UNESCO.
