Irakiska militären: al-Nurimoskén återtagen

The Great Mosque of al-Nuri (Arabic: جامع النوري‎‎ Jāmiʿ an-Nūrī) was a mosque in Mosul, Iraq. It was famous for its leaning minaret, which gave the city its nickname "the hunchback" (الحدباء al-Ḥadbāˈ). Tradition holds that the mosque was first built in the late 12th century, although it underwent many renovations over the years. Outlasting various hostile invading forces in its history of 850 years, it was destroyed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on 21 June 2017, during the Battle of Mosul. Iraqi troops attributed ISIS as responsible for the destruction of the Great Mosque in a vandalistic move to destroy it rather than let it go from their hold. It had held symbolic importance to ISIS and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as it was used in 2014 by the militants to self-declare their "caliphate". ISIS' black flag had been flying on the 45-metre minaret since June 2014, after their militants surged across Iraq and Syria seizing territory, and they had promised to never let their flag be lowered from it. Contrary to official accounts and local Muslim eyewitnesses, ISIS alleged that the United States destroyed it. ISIS' claim was not substantiated. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi stated that the destruction of the mosque by ISIS was a "declaration of defeat", and that "[b]lowing up the al-Hadba minaret and the al-Nuri mosque amounts to an official acknowledgment of defeat [by ISIS]."