The Pentagon today showed images of Al Nuri’s mosque in Mosul (Iraq) destroyed by the Islamic State (EI) and condemned one of the 800-year-old symbols of the city.
Photos distributed by the Pentagon show black and white aerial images of the destruction that has been suffered by the mosque, where on July 4, 2014, EI leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made one of his rare appearances before the chambers to proclaim His caliphate.
In the explosion, the famous leaning minaret of the mosque, one of the most famous postcards in Mosul, a city taken since the summer of 2014 by the EI, is now under siege in a small redoubt of the old part of the second Iraqi city.
“When Iraqi security forces were approaching the Al Nuri mosque, the EI destroyed what is one of the greatest treasures of Mosul and Iraq,” said the head of the Earth component of the US mission against The jihadists in Iraq, General Joseph Martin.
“This has been a crime against the people of Mosul and Iraq, and is an example of why this brutal organization must be annihilated,” said Martin, who acknowledged that the battle for the full liberation of Mosul has not ended.
The labyrinthine old town of Mosul is allowing the EI to remain resilient after having lost most of the city and every possible supply line, though the Pentagon believes that militiamen will fight to the death.
