Iraqi forces closing in on famed Mosul mosque and minaret

Rudaw
MOSUL, Iraq – Iraqi forces announced the recapture of two districts in western Mosul on Friday, bringing them within less than one kilometer from the city’s famed Great Mosque of al-Nuri. 

Federal police retook the districts of Nabi Sheet and Ukaydat, Lt. Gen Abdul Amir Rashid Yaralla announced in a published statement Friday afternoon. 

The Iraqi forces are now within less than one kilometer from the mosque where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his so-called caliphate on June 29, 2014, naming himself the leader of the whole Islamic world, seeking to found a new Islamic regime. 

“I am the wali [leader] who presides over you, though I am not the best of you, so if you see that I am right, assist me,” Baghdadi said in the mosque, dressed in a black turban and robe. 

“If you see that I am wrong, advise me and put me on the right track, and obey me as long as I obey God in you,” he continued. 

ISIS executed 13 Islamic clerics who refused to pledge allegiance to the self-declared caliphate in that same month, including the cleric of the mosque. 

The mosque is also the site of the al-Hadba minaret, nicknamed the hunchback by Iraqis because of its precarious tilt. 

The 45 metre high minaret was completed in 1172. By the 14th century, when the traveler Ibn Battutah visited Mosul, the minaret was already leaning, according to the World Monuments Fund. 

On June 2, 2014, just four days before ISIS began its onslaught on the city, UNESCO announced efforts to safeguard the minaret that tilts 253cm. A “technical team installed the safety materials required to take samples and undertake the geological bedding and structural analysis,” UNESCO stated at the time. 

ISIS militants famously destroyed many archaeological sites it deemed un-Islamic. In July 2014, ISIS announced al-Hadba was slated for destruction. Witnesses said that residents formed a human chain to protect the site that is held dear to many Iraqis. “If you blow up the minaret, you’ll have to kill us too,” people told the militants, AP reported. 

ISIS backed down and left the minaret still standing. 

Northwest of the city, Iraqi forces liberated the villages of al-Jimasa and al-Hamidat al-Kaayna, near to the town of Badush.